A Man's Enemies

A Man’s Enemies, first published in 1937 as part of the Red Badge Mystery Series, features private detective Peter Clancy, assisted by his servant Wiggars. Author Emma Redington Lee Thayer (1874-1973) published 60 novels during her long career, all but one featuring detective Peter Clancy. Synopsis from the original edition: If Top Hat Rafferty had remained on the straight and narrow path; if Peter Clancy, by what we call chance, had not happened to stop in on the night when the extortion note was first disclosed, the case of the Graytowers murder might never even have come to light. For who but Peter would have asked those searching questions about the hangman’s knot and the tiny wound? Why the victim’s pistol was not fired? And how it came to be so far under the bed? Why Whittlesey had seemed so ready to accede to the blackmailer’s demand. So much care had been taken to leave no clues, surely the local police were justified in pouncing on those that did appear and in taking them at their face value. Only Peter’s long experience made it possible to realize that the absence of a thing that should inevitably appear is sometimes more significant than the most obviously damaging piece of evidence. And on this assumption, the astute private investigator, followed and supported by his faithful Wiggar, moves swiftly through these pages to the amazing denouement.