Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Layton Court Mystery by Anthony Berkeley The Layton Court Mystery by Anthony Berkeley. This page lists novels and short story collections Anthony Berkeley and collaborative novels that include a contribution by Anthony Berkeley. Note that the first two novels in the list were originally published anonymously and only credited to Anthony Berkeley in later editions. Anthony Berkeley was one of the pen names used by Anthony Berkeley Cox. Cox also published books using the names A.B. Cox, Francis Iles and A. Monmouth Platts. For a full list of books by Anthony Berkeley Cox, including all pen names, see the Anthony Berkeley Cox page. Cover images are, where possible, of the first UK edition and a recent paperback or digital edition. The Layton Court Mystery. Later editions credited to Anthony Berkeley. A Roger Sheringham novel. The Wychford Poisoning Case: An Essay in Criminology. By the author of 'The Layton Court Mystery' Later editions credited to Anthony Berkeley. A Roger Sheringham novel. Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery. Anthony Berkeley. Subsequently published by Collins as The Vane Mystery. Published in the US as The Mystery at Lovers� Cave. A Roger Sheringham novel. The Silk Stocking Murders. Anthony Berkeley. A Roger Sheringham novel. The Poisoned Chocolates Case. Anthony Berkeley. A Roger Sheringham novel. The Piccadilly Murder. Anthony Berkeley. The Second Shot. Anthony Berkeley. A Roger Sheringham novel. Top Storey Murder. Anthony Berkeley. Published in the US as Top Story Murder. Mrs Boyd (caretaker) Mr Augustus Weller Mr and Mrs Kingcross Mr and Mrs Barrington Braybrook Miss Evadne Delamere The Ennismore Smiths Mrs Pilchard Miss Barnett. The Floating Admiral. Members Of The Detection Club. A collaborative novel with contributions by Agatha Christie, , Dorothy L. Sayers, Clemence Dane, Anthony Berkeley. G. K. Chesterton, Freeman Wills Crofts, G. D. H. Cole, Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Ronald Knox, Canon Victor Whitechurch, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, and Edgar Jepson. Murder in the Basement. Anthony Berkeley. A Roger Sheringham novel. Jumping Jenny. Anthony Berkeley. Published in the US as Dead Mrs. Stratton. A Roger Sheringham novel. Ask a Policeman. Member of the Detection Club. A collaborative novel with contributions by Dorothy L. Sayers, Gladys Mitchell, Anthony Berkeley, John Rhode, Helen Simpson, and Milward Kennedy. Lord Peter Wimsey contributes to the investigation. Panic Party. Anthony Berkeley. Published in the US as Mr. Pidgeon�s Island. Six Against The Yard. Members Of The Detection Club. A collection of six stories - one each by Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Ronald Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers and Russell Thorndike. Trial and Error. Anthony Berkeley. Not To Be Taken. Anthony Berkeley. Published in the US as A Puzzle in Poison. Death in the House. Anthony Berkeley. The Scoop and Behind the Screen. Members Of The Detection Club. Two detective serials that were written by various members of the Detection Club for weekly radio broadcasts on the BBC in 1930 and 1931. The scripts were originally published in instalments in the Listener magazine shortly after the broadcasts. The book brings together the two complete scripts. The contributing authors were Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, E.C. Bentley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Clemence Dane, Ronald Knox, and Hugh Walpole. The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries from Roger Sheringham�s Casebook. Anthony Berkeley. Crippen & Landru. Roger Sheringham short stories. An enlarged paperback edition was published in 2015. Layton Court Mystery by Berkeley Anthony. Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New! This item is printed on demand. The Layton Court Mystery (Paperback) Anthony Berkeley. Published by Independently Published, United States, 2021. New - Softcover Condition: New. Paperback. Condition: New. Language: English. Brand new Book. - The much-revered crime writer Anthony Berkeley's first-ever crime novel. - 'A continuously readable and exciting guessing game' NEW YORK HERALD-TRIBUNE - 'A mystery that really mystifies and a detective who really detects' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT Victor Stanworth, a genial old man of sixty, apparently without a care in the world, is entertaining a party of friends at his country house, Layton Court. One morning he is found shot in the library. Was it suicide or murder? Roger Sheringham, one of the guests, determines to solve the mystery. He sets about it as he might do in real life. He is not one of those hawk-eyed, tight-lipped detectives who pursue their inexorable and silent way to the very heart of things. He makes a mistake or two occasionally, but he does not conceal any of the evidence and the reader has the same data to go upon as the detective, and is carried breathlessly through to the end. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anthony Berkeley Cox was a best-selling and much-admired English crime writer who wrote under a number of pen- names, including Anthony Berkeley, Francis Iles and A. Monmouth Platts. Born in Watford in 1893 he studied at Oxford University and worked as a journalist after serving as an officer in the First World War. He created Roger Sheringham for his first crime novel, THE LAYTON COURT MYSTERY, published in 1925. Amateur detective Sheringham, was loquacious, conceited, occasionally downright offensive, and something of a man-about-town with contacts in all the right places. However, infallibility was not one of Sheringham's virtues. His most famous outing was in THE POISONED CHOCOLATES CASE (1929) which sold over one million copies, received rapturous reviews and is regarded today as a classic of the Golden Age of Crime. In the same year it was published, Cox created 'The Detection Club', the illustrious dining club of detective story writers. He wrote 19 crime novels between 1925 and 1939 before returning to journalism, writing for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE SUNDAY TIMES and between 1950-70 THE GUARDIAN. He died in 1971. PRAISE FOR ANTHONY BERKELEY: 'All his stories are amusing, intriguing, and he is a master of the final twist, the surprise denouement' AGATHA CHRISTIE; 'There never was another writer of detective stories who managed to make his red herrings smell so good' THE OBSERVER; 'The most brilliant of Agatha Christie's contemporaries' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. The Layton Court Mystery. Anthony Berkeley. Published by Herbert Jenkins, 1925. Used - Hardcover Condition: Fair. Condition: Fair. 1925. Second Printing. 316 pages. No dust jacket. Illustrated green cloth. Title page and binding do not state author. Moderate foxing and tanning to pages with heavier tanning to pastedowns and endpapers. Pencil inscriptions to front endpaper and pastedown along with heavy foxing and tanning to text block edges. Cracking to both hinges and guttering causing book to be shaky as well. Boards have visible rubbing with some areas of bleaching to front. White specs to spine. Moderate crushing to spine ends and heavy bumping to corners. Heavy tanning to spine and board edges, with some colour rubbed away to cloth on joints. The Layton Court Mystery by Anthony Berkeley. Genial and wealthy Victor Stanworth is hosting a house party at Layton Court. Lady Stanworth, his sister-in-law, acts as his hostess, and his secretary, Major Jefferson, is there to keep things organized. In attendance are Mrs Shannon, her daughter Barbara, Mrs Plant, Alexander Grierson and his friend Roger Sheringham. When Stanworth is found dead in the library, behind locked doors and windows, it looks like a case of suicide. Yet Roger Sheringham is unconvinced and decides to prove that it was murder. With Alec as his Watson, Roger is bound and determined to solve the case. This was another re-read for me (I have resolved to not buy any books between now and Christmas…yah, let’s see how long that lasts), and I remember reading it several years ago, and liking it, but didn’t remembering much of the plot until I got into it again. This was Anthony Berkeley’s first novel, published (anonymously) in 1925. In the dedication, Berkeley states that his goal was to write a mystery that laid out for the reader “every scrap of evidence just as it is discovered” and he has done so very well. This is definitely a fair play mystery. He also sought to create a plausible detective, and so introduced the character of Roger Sheringham, a novelist who casts himself as detective in the style of Sherlock Holmes. Unlike Holmes, while Sheringham does uncover a great deal of evidence, his means of interpreting it relies more on his imagination than deductive reasoning. Often fitting the evidence to his latest theory, he goes down a number of wrong alleys, always convinced that he is correct. But while his theories may fall short of the mark, he’s like a dog with a bone, refusing to give up, and somehow he gets to the truth. In Sheringham he has succeeded by crafting a character that is not to be taken too seriously; fallible, yet brimming with conceit regarding his talents as a detective. ‘Not much so far as actual hard-and-fast-evidence goes, I’m afraid,’ he concluded, ‘but we greater detectives are above evidence.’” Unfortunately, while the story is populated with all of the stock characters of a country house mystery, Berkeley does little to flesh them out, we never learn much about them, and so they remain rather two-dimensional throughout. Also, other that the rather amusing “John Prince” episode, the plot involves little outside of conversations between Sheringham and Grierson, with Sheringham espousing his latest assumptions, followed by Grierson trying to rein his excessive enthusiasm and pointing out the flaws in his theories. That being said, I still enjoyed Layton Court immensely. Having Sheringham lay out all of the clues, and then seeing him jump to several inevitably wrong conclusions, was highly entertaining. Berkeley’s writing is filled with dry wit, and while the continuous dialogue between Sheringham and Grierson could be tedious, it was always filled with clever, amusing wordplay. This is one of only two books by Berkeley that I’ve read, the other being Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery, but I will definitely be reading more. The Layton Court Mystery - The Roger Sheringham Cases. A party at Layton Court, the country house of Victor Stanworth, is disrupted when the host is found shot through the forehead in his own library, a suicide as far as the police are concerned. After all, the gun is found in his hand, a note has been left, and the room is locked from the inside. But one of the guests, author Roger Sheringham, has his doubts. The bullet wound is not positioned where it could have been easily self-inflicted. With a house full of partygoers and servants, suspects abound. It will take Sheringham's sharp wit and fearless investigating to deduce who brought the festivities to a fatal end. The founder of the Detection Club in London, along with Agatha Christie and other writers, Anthony Berkeley wrote numerous novels, sometimes using the pseudonyms Francis Iles and A. Monmouth Platts. The Layton Court Mystery is his first book in the Roger Sheringham Cases, which includes The Poisoned Chocolates Case and The Silk Stocking Murders , among other titles. "Certainly, Berkeley's short and fascinating career deserves to be saluted. For fans of the classic English crime novel, his books remain enjoyable to this day. Nobody has ever done ironic ingenuity better than Anthony Berkeley." - Mystery Scene. "He was one of the most influential crime novelists of the 1920s and 1930s, but has languished somewhat in obscurity since. A troubled, dark, incredibly innovative writer . . ." - Shedunnit. Anthony Berkeley Books In Order. Anthony Berkeley was a mystery writer and the founder of the Detection Club, one of the most recognized fiction innovators. He also wrote under the pseudonym Francis Iles, and wrote over twenty mystery stories in his lifetime. Anthony is also known to be the first writer to predict the evolution of psychological crime stories. The Roger Sheringham series is among Anthony’s most recognized works. The Layton Court Mystery. The Layton Court Mystery is the first book in the Roger Sheringham Cases series. The series starts with a party where Alexander Grierson and Roger Sheringham are among the guests. Both of these men did not know the host well, but what they see is an outgoing man who is having a lot of fun. Things turn tragic when the host, a man of great wealth, turns up dead. How does a man who was having the time of his life a few hours back die so suddenly? What are the circumstances surrounding this death? During the party at Victor’s house, Alexander and Barbara get engaged. However, Barbara calls off the engagement, which comes as a surprise to many. Why would Barbara do this to a man she claims to love? The news of the broken engagement is overshadowed by the discovery of Victor’s lifeless body in his library. Now Alexander has to join his friend Roger is finding out precisely what happened on the night that Victor died. Victor’s body is found in his English country home, where he had just hosted a party for his friends the previous night. Preliminary findings indicate that Victor killed himself, given the fact that his door was locked. There is a single bullet wound in his head and a gun in his hand. There is also a suicide note that explains why the wealthy man committed suicide. However, Roger Sheringham, one of Layton Court’s guests and a sleuth investigator, is not buying this story. There are many people on the suspects’ list, but the question that remains is how anyone could have locked the door after killing Victor. Even though he is an amateur, Roger uses his wit to unearth the truth of what led to victor’s death. Join Roger and his friend on a journey in search of the truth. The twists come fast, and the pace is relentless after the first few pages. Despite the death, the story is told in a humorous tone, and it is fun to follow the different characters as they interact with each other. Roger is a lovable character, and even with minimal, if any investigative experience, he is determined to find the truth. So, who killed Victor, and what was their motivation? Was the killer among the guests invited to the party? Find out this and so much more in this intriguing series. This is a golden age mystery story that comes with an exciting cast and a solid storyline. The ending is quite unconventional, but it gives the story quite an edge. The Layton Court Mystery is a perfect choice if you want a mystery story that will also make you laugh. The characters here are lovable, and the storyline is outstanding. The Piccadilly Murder. The Piccadilly Murder introduces us to Ambrose Chitterwick is a wealthy man living with an overbearing aunt. Aside from his wealth, Ambrose is well mannered, always formal, and he strives to do what is right. One day, Ambrose witnesses a death in Piccadilly Palace Hotel. Ambrose is sure that he saw a man adding something to the older woman’s drink before she died, and he shares this information with the police. The police move quickly to arrest Major Sinclair, the man who perfectly matches Ambrose’s description. Major Sinclair is the older woman’s nephew. Ambrose is invited to visit the duke and his sister, and he feels that it is necessary to hear them out. Even before he hears what they have to say, Ambrose is almost sure that these two want to request him to consider his evidence. True to his thinking, the duke asks Ambrose to reexamine the older woman’s death. Ambrose does precisely that, and while this leaves the police bemused, they have no choice to tolerate it thanks to his social standing. Is it possible that Ambrose made a mistake? Given the current succession issue, it is safe to assume that the elderly woman was sacrificed for her money? Unlike in the popular investigative stories, the detective in this story is an armature. Ambrose is meek and unassuming, and at some point, he is going to take matters into his hands in the investigation. It is refreshing to meet the main character who is not perfect and a storyline that deviates from the norm. Despite his misgivings, Ambrose’s love for the truth sees him going the extra mile to search for the details that everyone seems to be missing. Is Ambrose overreacting, or is he on to something? From his writing, it is easy to see that the author has an eye for detail. The dialogue between characters is well done, and the narration is simply outstanding. While the identity of the murderer seems obvious, an unexpected twist along the way will completely change your thinking. So, what killed the elderly lady, and could her nephew risk killing her, knowing that he would be the first suspect? If the nephew is not the killer, is it possible that this is the picture the murder wanted to paint? The Piccadilly Murder is a perfect choice if you are looking for a unique golden age mystery story. There are a few unexpected twists in the story, as well as a variety of characters that you will grow to love. The tone here is amusing and light, making this a perfect pick me up a book plenty of action to keep you entertained. Get to see how a death that appears natural turns into a well-thought-out murder. The identity of the murderer will come as a surprise, and you can bet that it will be a lot of fun guessing the killer as the story progresses.