The Noose

Gentleman detective Anthony Gethryn is in a race against time to save an innocent man from the hangman’s noose.

Colonel Anthony Gethryn is recalled from a holiday in Spain to solve a murder in the November fogs of London. He finds that his wife is sheltering Mrs Bronson, whose husband is in prison awaiting execution for the murder of a gamekeeper six months before. A petition for reprieve has been rejected and Bronson will shortly hang for someone else’s crime. Convinced by Mrs Bronson of her husband’s innocence, Gethryn embarks on a seemingly hopeless race against time to overthrow the guilty verdict and find the real murderer – and he has only five days before Bronson’s date with the hangman’s noose.

The Noose saw the return of Philip MacDonald’s gentleman detective Anthony Ruthven Gethryn, whose debut in The Rasp six years earlier had been a big success. Judged to be his best book yet, The Noose had the distinction of being chosen as the first book to be published in Collins’ Crime Club in May 1930, helping to immortalise it as one of the seminal books of the crime genre.

This Detective Story Club classic includes an introduction by H. R. F. Keating, which first appeared in the Crime Club’s 1985 ‘Disappearing Detectives’ series.

Reviews

Praise for Philip MacDonald:

‘The more I read his work, the better I like it.’ Sunday Times

‘This author shares with A.E.W. Mason a quality which few detective story-writers possess, the ability to construct situations of almost unbearable suspense. Common sense may tell us that right must triumph, but until we reach the last page our harrowed sensibilities will not allow us to lay aside the book.’ The Times

‘However tastes may differ, most people would admit that Philip MacDonald is one of the half-dozen best writers of detective fiction.’ Glasgow Herald

‘Mr MacDonald, almost alone among detective story-writers, mixes literature with murder.’ Time and Tide

About the author

British author Philip MacDonald wrote more than 30 accomplished crime novels, many of them after moving to Hollywood in 1931, where he also wrote and produced more than 100 scripts for the silver screen. His first solo novel, The Rasp (1924) introduced Colonel Anthony Gethryn, a gentleman detective who went on to appear in a dozen novels, including The Noose, The Maze and finally The List of Adrian Messenger in 1959.