Лучшие книги Алана Хантера

Издание продолжает знакомить читателей с творчеством мастеров английского детектива второй половины XX века. Джеймс Хэдли Чейз, традиционно работающий на американском материале, давно зарекомендовал себя как мастер "крутого" детектива. Хэммонд Иннес удачно сочетает элементы детектива и приключенческого романа. "Английский Сименон" Алан Хантер, работающий в сфере полицейского романа, получил известность своим сериалом об инспекторе Джентли.

When a body is found in a hopper of sour flour at an old mill, it turns out to be that of a small-time race-track crook from London. What he'd been doing in so unlikely a place as Lynton is the first question to baffle Chief Inspector George Gently.

Having been invited to spend Christmas in the country, fishing for pike, Gently finds himself hunting a completely different predator when a guest at Merely Hall, a nearby stately home, is found dead at the foot of the grand staircase on Christmas morning.

Chief Inspector Gently has to cancel his fishing holiday when he is called in to lead an investigation into the death of a man in the burnt-out shell of a boat.

The last thing you need when you're on holiday is to become involved in a murder. For most people, that would easily qualify as the holiday from hell. For George Gently, it is a case of business as usual. The Chief Inspector's quiet Easter break in Norchester is rudely interrupted when a local timber merchant is found dead. His son, with whom he had been seen arguing, immediately becomes the prime suspect, although Gently is far from convinced of his guilt.

Norchester City Police gratefully accept Gently's offer to help investigate the murder, but he soon clashes with Inspector Hansom, the officer in charge of the case. Hansom's idea of conclusive evidence appals Gently almost as much as Gently's thorough, detailed, methodical style of investigation exasperates Hansom, who considers the murder to be a straightforward affair.

Locking horns with the local law is a distraction Gently can do without when he's on the trail of a killer.

When Chief Inspector Gently arrived in Starmouth, the 'body on the beach murder' was already the topic of conversation for the massed holiday-makers. First published in 1956, this was the 2nd of Alan Hunter's series of crime novels featuring George Gently.

Every man in Hiverton knows Rachel Campion. She is the most gorgeous girl to have turned up in the fishing village in living memory. When she is discovered lying dead on the beach, Gently joins the throngs of summer visitors on their annual pilgrimage to the seaside in the midst of a summer heatwave - and as the temperature soars, the mystery deepens.

The long-buried skeleton of a woman is unearthed close to where Rachel's body was found and Gently suddenly has the riddle of two mysterious deaths to solve. Many of the locals, including the secretive brotherhood of fishermen, seem particularly reluctant to help Gently answer the vital questions: Why was Rachel Campion murdered? How is the old skeleton connected with the new crime? And who is the murderer?