George Bellairs, noto anche come Harold Blundell, è stato un prolifico scrittore di gialli celebrato per la sua avvincente serie dell'ispettore Littlejohn. Le sue narrazioni sono caratterizzate da trame intricate e acute intuizioni sulla natura umana, offrendo ai lettori un'esperienza emozionante e intellettualmente stimolante. Oltre al suo vasto lavoro come Bellairs, ha anche scritto romanzi sotto lo pseudonimo di Hilary Landon, dimostrando una più ampia portata letteraria. Le storie di Bellairs sono ammirate per le loro ambientazioni suggestive e il loro classico stile di narrativa poliziesca.
Dr. James Macintosh, the Bishop of Greyle, was a mysterious man. For a long time, nobody even knew his last name. When his body is found emaciated and battered, it appears he was pushed face-first off the edge of a cliff. Inspector Littlejohn can't explain the savagery of the murder. Did the Bishop know too much about the secretive citizens of Cape Marvin? Or did the reason have something to do with the strange family he left behind in Medhope? -- adapted from back cover
The Mayor of the popular resort of Westcombe, Sir Gideon Ware, is no stranger to making enemies. What was once a quaint little harbour is now miles of level, concrete promenade, and acres of pleasure-beach, embracing every kind of device for human entertainment and sensation. Sir Gideon Ware has put Westcombe on the map through bribes, intimidation and threats. When Ware drops dead in the middle of his annual lunch, no one is surprised to hear that murder is suspected. But with so many enemies surrounding Ware, Inspector Littlejohn has his work cut out shifting through Ware’s past to find the likely killer. Especially with the Chief Constable so keen on covering up vital facts in the investigation. It becomes clear that Ware was poisoned. But everyone else ate and drank the same things, and no one appeared to have been near enough to Ware to have done the deed. Before Littlejohn can get to the bottom of it, a second murder is committed… Can he crack the case before more lives are put in jeopardy? Or will the long list of suspects help the killer to get away with it…? ‘He’d Rather Be Dead’ is a classic detective mystery by one of the masters of the genre.
Jim Teasdale has been drowned in the Dumb River, near Ely, miles from his Yorkshire home. His body has been discovered before the killer intended and it's up to Superintendent Littlejohn to trace the mystery of the unassuming victim's murder to its source, leaving scandal in his wake as the hidden dealings of Jim Teasdale begin to surface.
Nathaniel Wall, the local quack doctor, is found hanging in his consulting room in the Norfolk village of Stalden - but this was not a suicide. Against the backdrop of a close-knit country village, an intriguing story of ambition, blackmail, fraud, false alibis and botanical trickery unravels
Superintendent Littlejohn is summoned to Surrey to investigate murder by explosion in Bellairs' novel of small-town grudges with calamitous consequences.
The eponymous nosy parker Miss Ethel Tither, who has made herself deeply unpopular by going out of her way to snoop on people, is found floating in a cesspool, having been bludgeoned prior to drowning in the drainage water. A case of murder and intrigue.
