Seguite le vicende di Francis Pettigrew, un avvocato la cui carriera è tutt'altro che brillante, ma il cui acuto intelletto lo porta spesso a scoprire la verità. Questa serie si addentra nel mondo delle aule di tribunale britanniche e negli intricati intrighi polizieschi. È una narrazione avvincente di giustizia, arguzia e natura umana.
When an anonymous letter arrives for Mr Justice Barber, the High Court judge, warning of imminent revenge, he dismisses it as the work of a harmless lunatic. But then a second letter appears, followed by a poisoned box of the judge's favourite chocolates, and he begins to fear for his life.
The Blitz has forced the evacuation of various government offices from London and Pettigrew accompanies his ministry to the distant seaside resort of Marsett Bay. In this strange atmosphere, Pettigrew begins to fall in love with his secretary, who is also being courted by a widowed man much older than her.
Famous solo violinist Lucy Carless is making a guest appearance with the provincial Markshire Orchestra, only to be found strangled with a silk stocking part-way through the concert.
Gordon Clark was a county judge at the time of the novel's compositionWhen Francis Pettigrew, former barrister and sometime amateur detective, is plucked out of peaceful retirement in the Home Counties to deputise for the County Court judge, the proceedings offer him some unexpected insights into the lives of his new neighbours.
Francis Pettigrew travels to Exmoor for a holiday with his wife - an area in which as a young boy he was traumatised by coming across a dead body on the moor. In an attempt to exorcise this trauma, Pettigrew walks across the moor to the place where the incident occurred - only to find another dead body.
These thirty stories, selected and introduced by fellow crime writer and lawyer Michael Gilbert, are a terrific introduction to Cyril Hare's inventive and clever Golden Age detective fiction, which often turns on an ingenious use of the law.