Antidote to Venom (British Library Crime Classics)

Freeman Wills Crofts

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712357793 ISBN 13: 9780712357791

Publisher: The British Library Publishing Division, 2015

'Mr Wills Crofts is deservedly a first favourite with all who want a real puzzle' - Times Literary Supplement 'He always manages to give us something that really keeps us guessing' - Daily Mirror George Surridge, director of the Birmington Zoo, is a man with many worries: his marriage is collapsing; his finances are insecure; and an outbreak of disease threatens the animals in his care. As Surridge's debts mount and the pressure on him increases, he begins to dream of miracle solutions. But is he cunning enough to turn his dreams into reality - and could he commit the most devious murder in pursuit of his goals? This ingenious crime novel, with its unusual 'inverted' structure and sympathetic portrait of a man on the edge, is one of the greatest works by this highly respected author. The elaborate means of murder devised by Crofts's characters is perhaps unsurpassed in English crime fiction for its ostentatious intricacy.

Review:

The tension is held until the last moment. The plotting is ingenious while the break from the traditional mystery format spikes our interest. Too long neglected, Wills Crofts deserves a place among the greats of the Golden Age. --Daily Mail

[In the Crime Classics series] Antidote to Venom has been the first among equals an inverted crime story with an ambitious depiction of a man s fall from, and return to, grace. Crofts cleverly hands us an inverted mystery in which the main character doesn t quite know how the murder is committed, which is a fairly impressive feat of sleight-of-hand. It also means that the reader is in the dark about the mechanism of the crime, which is where Crofts specialises. --Past Offences

It is spry, focussed, beautifully rich in intrigue and heartbreak, and balances its inverted and traditional elements perfectly. And when the investigation starts...oh, boy, are you in for a treat. --The Invisible Event blog

About the Author:

Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957) was one of the pre-eminent writers in the golden age of British crime fiction. He was the author of more than thirty detective novels and was greatly acclaimed by his peers, including Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler.