At the Villa Rose
At the Villa Rose is the detective novel that introduced A. E. W. Mason’s shrewd French policeman, Inspector Hanaud, first published in 1910. At Aix-les-Bains a wealthy widow is found murdered and her jewels stolen, and suspicion falls at once on her young English companion. Hanaud, aided by his amateur friend Ricardo, sets out to read the evidence of the crime, and Mason does something unusual for his day by revealing the culprit partway through and then showing exactly how the detective pieced it all together. Built on a real case, the book helped shape the golden-age mystery and the figure of the eccentric professional sleuth. This free PDF and EPUB offers the complete novel.
About the Author
A. E. W. Mason (1865 to 1948) was an English novelist and playwright, remembered above all for The Four Feathers and for his detective Inspector Hanaud. He drew on his own travels and wartime service for many of his adventure stories.
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