The Corpse with the Dirty Face

When Broadall the merchant banker fails to appear at his office in Cumberland Court, his confidential clerk calls on Philip Tolefree to investigate the disappearance with the minimum of publicity. Breaking into Broadall's London residence, Tolefree finds that there is a very good reason that the banker banker hasn't shown up for work - he has been strangled during the night. Flitting between the City of London and Broadall's country house, Monks Corner, Tolefree sets to work to discover whether the culprit was an opportunistic burglar, or someone with a more personal grudge.

''The Corpse with the Dirty Face'' is a classic Golden Age detective novel by R.A.J. Walling, featuring his recurring amateur sleuth Philip Tolefree; it's a witty, well-regarded mystery where Tolefree investigates a murder with peculiar details, like smudges on the victim's face, collaborating effectively with the intelligent police inspector, Inspector Pierce. Originally published in 1936, this is a vintage murder mystery from the golden age of crime fiction.