Inspector French: James Tarrant, Adventurer

Once dubbed ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’, Freeman Wills Crofts was an Irish railway engineer whose brilliant first mystery novel, The Cask, was motivated by an extended illness in 1919. Outselling Agatha Christie, and renowned for his ingenious plotting and meticulous attention to detail, Crofts followed up with The Ponson Case (1921) and no less than thirty books featuring the iconic Scotland Yard detective, Inspector French.

“A detective novel by Mr. Wills Crofts is always an event to those who know … Mr. Crofts is among the few muscular writers of detective fiction. He has never let me down.”HAROLD NICHOLSON, DAILY EXPRESS