Hooky On Loan

A tiny Sussex village harbours a motley collection of inhabitants. Millerscroft, the big house, is now an expensive school, run by the flamboyant and promiscuous Raymond Montague. Hooky Hefferman is introduced into the community supposedly as a temporary teacher at Millerscroft, but in reality to investigate the theft of £500 from one of the students. It doesn't take Hooky long to discover that underneath the outwardly tranquil veneer of the village there's a tangle of adultery, debt and venomous hatred. But before Hooky can identify the thief a body is found in a stream. Did he fall or was he pushed?

Hooky Hefferman, private detective, is, as they say in the theatrical profession, 'resting'. So when the thin little man in the shabby blue suit calls to ask for professional advice, though he looks by no means promising as a provider of much-needed funds, Hooky is at least prepared to listen - and finds his interest at once held. Edward Rider wants to stay alive until the following Friday, and asks Hooky to help him achieve this modest ambition. On that day, he is anxious to meet a certain person arriving from Berlin, and it is becoming increasingly obvious that someone is determined to prevent this.

Stella Brendan was accustomed to a comfortable unearned income and she was fifty-two years old when it vanished. How could she survive? She could survive by marrying Sir Loder Cholerton, tycoon and ageing bachelor. But Stella has skeletons in her past, skeletons that would not appeal to Sir Loder should they come out. When that threat occurs Stella calls Hooky Hefferman, who finds himself trying to protect Stella's interests. Then there's a murder. A man has been shot and there are several people who could have fired the fatal bullet ... 'Thoroughly civilised writing, managing to up-date the easy, humorous, engaging mood of pre-war days, floods this pleasant country house mystery with a sunny glow' Glasgow Herald

When Lady Darley asks for Hooky Hefferman's help, he wonders what sort of trouble she can be in. She doesn't look the sort to have a very grisly skeleton in her cupboard, but you never can tell ... Hooky's insatiable curiosity is soon aroused by her story, and he is easily persuaded to go down to Monkhamblin Hall, the old family mansion. Once there, a corpse and the odd behaviour of the present owner are quite enough to keep his famous nose glued to the trail.

When local beauty queen Virginia Vance goes to London, she becomes the mistress of the Hon. Charles Lasting, who runs a particularly venomous daily gossip column. Lasting is a callous, cynical brute, but Virginia has a real weakness for him. It is this weakness that leads her to help him get hold of the scandalous memoirs of Princess Lucy Mettioff, the publication of which will make him a lot of money. But Virginia is about to run into Hooky Hefferman, who, by chance, has become the Princess's literary agent ... 'More comedy than crime is Mr Meynell's new formula and it is working well' Yorkshire Post

Edward Rigby's sudden death in South America provides Hooky Hefferman, private investigator, with his first case. Rigby's employers, the San Lucca Railway Concession, have hinted that he committed suicide, which is enough to prevent his insurance company paying up. His wife, Hilda, thinks the story needs investigation, and Hooky is the man she chooses to do it. The San Luccans are notoriously hot-blooded, and Hooky, with his genius for getting into scrapes, soon finds plenty of trouble. In fact, his first case nearly becomes his last.

Oliver Seaton was an up-and-coming Labour MP when his mother committed suicide by gassing herself. Oliver had lived at his mother's house and the inquest judge was keen to know what time he got home to find his mother dying. He had called an ambulance at 9.26pm. Among the crowd at the inquest is Alan Strang. Oliver and Strang have had a private relationship in the past, a relationship that, if it came to light, could ruin the fast-developing career of the MP, not to mention his marriage. When a muck-raking journalist elicits from Strang that he saw Oliver reach his mother's house at 8.55pm on the night she died there is a missing half hour to account for, and the danger for Seaton starts growing ...

When Arthur meets the lovely but evil Valerie Stockley, after he and his new wife move into the house his wife has inherited, he soon becomes possessed by a force he cannot fight. Alongside Valerie, lust, greed and weakness led him deeper into depravity until he is finally committed to murder. But the house is strangely haunted - things move of their own accord, curtains draw themselves, and bells ring. As the murder plot thickens, Arthur is forced to face the power which occupies the house - and by now there is no going back ...