The cover page is adapted from The Starvel Hollow Tragedy, a painting completed in 1927 by Salomon van Abbé. The cover and title pages feature the League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by The League of Moveable Type. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salomon_van_Abb%C3%A9www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
The Starvel Hollow Tragedy
Chapters (21)
- Dedication 0:00
- I: The Tragedy 0:07
- II: The Inquest 27:45
- III: Mr. Tarkington Develops a Theory 55:37
- IV: Inspector French Goes North 1:23:39
- V: French Picks Up a Clue 1:57:54
- VI: Talloires, Lac d’Annecy 2:27:21
- VII: Posthumous Evidence 2:56:37
- VIII: Dr. Philpot’s Story 3:26:48
- IX: The Value of Analysis 3:55:49
- X: Whymper Speaks at Last 4:19:51
- XI: A Startling Theory 4:54:28
- XII: A Somewhat Gruesome Chapter 5:20:45
- XIII: The Piece of Yellow Clay 5:55:23
- XIV: The Secret of the Moor 6:18:53
- XV: French Baits His Trap 6:43:03
- XVI: A Double Recall 7:11:33
- XVII: Concerning Wedding Rings 7:30:09
- XVIII: Cumulative Evidence 8:02:10
- XIX: The Last Lap 8:22:41
- XX: Conclusion 8:47:58
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Leaving her home, the isolated house on the Yorkshire moors called Starvel, Ruth Averill heads off to stay with a family friend. Little does she know that she will never see it again: the following evening a fire utterly destroys the building, killing her rich and reclusive uncle, along with the two servants. At first this is seen as nothing but a horrible tragedy—a tragedy that’s compounded when it’s discovered that the vast majority of Ruth’s legacy from her uncle was paper money stored in a safe that didn’t survive the fire. The safe, however, was reputed for being fireproof, and soon an errant £20 note brings Inspector French onto the scene.
This, the third in the Inspector French series, was inspired by a real blaze that occurred near where Freeman Wills Crofts was living; but the layered drama that unfolds after, and Inspector French’s determination to find the next piece of evidence that will uncover the whole mystery, is invention in Crofts’ classic style—but with a little help from his wife.