Verdict of thirteen Book

For the first time in thirty years, England’s famed Detection Club has invited its most masterful and entertaining authors to create, especially for this collection, thirteen extraordinary stories of deception and detection, each brilliantly tied to the other by the single mysterious clue of trial by jury. But that tantalizing thread has been skillfully twisted to present a dozen plus one tales as individually puzzling as they are collectively spectacular, from a Kiplingesque tale of exotic India to a trip down murderer’s memory lane, childhood criminals to other-worldly crimes, blind luck to a cat’s eye view of murder, and schoolboy skullduggery to ghostly crimes of passion. (Publisher’s description) Contents: Great-aunt Allie’s flypapers / P. D. James — The rogue’s twist / Gwendoline Butler — Twenty-one good men and true / Dick Francis — Verdict of three / Michael Gilbert — Cloud nine / Christianna Brand — Pelly and Cullis / Michael Innes — Something the cat dragged in / Patricia Highsmith — The postgraduate thesis / Celia Fremlin — Gup / H. R. F. Keating — Murder at St Oswald’s / Michael Underwood — Morepork / Ngaio Marsh — Who killed the cat? / Peter Dickinson — Waiting for Mr McGregor / Julian Symons