When Thieves Fall Out

Basil Thomson

Beautiful Margaret Gask, guest at Scudamore Hall, was found shot to death on the driveway of the estate. The mink coat that she should have been wearing, and wasn't, turned out to be the first clue Scotland Yard had to work on, and when it was found that the dead girl had been corresponding with a receiver of stolen goods Inspector Dallas of the Yard went to question the man and found him dead. Each contact of the girl, when traced, drew in shady characters: receivers, jewel thieves, confidence men, and convicted felons on both sides of the Channel. From France, Dallas sent back reports to Chief Constable Richardson, which concerned a murdered French senator, the theft of a famous emerald, a fake Italian prince, and a mysterious priest who sought sanctuary after perpetrating thefts and felonies all over France. The threads of the case seemed to draw together, centering in an abandoned abbey in the South of France, but it ended where it began, in Scudamore Hall, where a priest's robe replaced a mink coat as Exhibit A in evidence. This book was published in England under the title *A Murder Arranged*