Untimely Death

Cyril Hare was the pseudonym for the distinguished lawyer Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark. He was born in Surrey, in 1900, and was educated at Rugby and Oxford. A member of the Inner Temple, he was called to the Bar in 1924 and joined the chambers of Roland Oliver, who handled many of the great crime cases of the 1920s. He practised as a barrister until the Second World War, after which he served in various legal and judicial capacities including a time as a county court judge in Surrey. Hare's crime novels, many of which draw on his legal experience, have been praised by Elizabeth Bowen and P.D. James among others. He died in 1958 - at the peak of his career as a judge, and at the height of his powers as a master of the whodunit.

As the latest PD James tale makes reference to this 1957 crime novel, and this year sees the 50th anniversary of Hare's death, it seems perfectly logical for Faber to re-release this "classic mystery". The real mystery is why some writers from the Golden Age of crime last, like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers, while others, like Hare, don't. All three describe an England that no longer exists; their stories often depend upon the kind of class difference that seems comical now; there's a sexual prudery, even though the tensions in these relationships often give rise to the murder in question. The Herald 'Cyril Hare conjures up an intriguing puzzle whose twists and turns will keep the reader turning the pages until the final surprising resolution.' , -- Brian Ritterspak Crime Time