Lonely Magdalen: A Murder Story

The body of a woman, strangled to death, is found in a corner of Hampstead Heath. It is clear from her appearance that she was a prostitute, but although the police soon have a suspect, they have no physical proof and their witnesses are contradictory. In this sixth and final mystery in the series by Henry Wade, from 1940, Inspector Poole finds out that the woman was not always a low-grade prostitute, but had sunk from hopeless poverty to a very different life. With ingenuity and tireless patience, Poole pieces together the story behind the lonely Magdalen, and why she came to grief. Henry Wade was the pen name of Henry Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher (1887-1969), one-time Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, who was one of the founding members of Britain's Detection Club and a major figure in the development of the golden age of crime fiction. The novel is presented here in a handsome Crime Classics edition with a dramatic retro-styled cover.