Peter Sinclair

While in hospital recovering from a bout of low blood pressure Hodgkiss takes a more-than-usual interest in the cottage next door. From a few observations made from his bedroom window he pieces together an elaborate murder plot designed to appear as suicide. Sitting in the audience during the recording of a popular quiz programme Hodgkiss notices some very odd happenings. Then when the big cash prize goes off he decides to look further into the matter and very soon discovers how the winning contestant managed to cheat with some very cunning help from a friend in the audience. The dying motorist is desperate to leave his wife a clue about where he hid her jewels for safe-keeping. But the Good Samaritan he gave the vital information to only wants to help himself. Hodgkiss, a friend of the dying man, pieces scraps of information together to thwart the greedy thief. The Mayor of Kanundda and his wife have gone on a mountain climbing junket to Venezuela. The mayoress disappears in mysterious circumstances and soon turns up dead. Hodgkiss develops an elaborate scientific theory deigned to shoot holes in the the mayor's story about the circumstances of his wife's disappearance. But this time it is Hodgkiss who has his facts wrong ... although it makes no difference to the mayor's fate.

Hodgkiss and the Rear Window and Other Stories

The Hodgkiss Mysteries

Hodgkiss and the Shack in the Woods Hodgkiss and the Wrong Rifle Hodgkiss and the Open Door In this, the eleventh volume of the Hodgkiss Mysteries, Edgar Hodgkiss is confronted with three examples of that most baffling of all forensic challenges ... a body found in a locked room with no way in or out. How can the killer leave the scene of the crime without a trace? These three cases demonstrate three different ways in which such a crime can be committed and they demonstrate, too, Hodgkiss' genius for unravelling the most complicated crimes in his usual aggressive and uncompromising manner. These three cases, The Shack in the Woods, The Wrong Rifle, and The Open Door, provide three different solutions for what looks at first sight to be three insoluble problems.

The Hodgkiss Mysteries Volume 11

A collection of cartoons, essays, and poems.

Contemporary Men's Humor

King, Warrior, Magician, Weenie

Hodgkiss doesn't miss a trick. Three new adventures of that cranky, obnoxious, insufferable but remarkably observant and astute senior citizen. The mayor of the notoriously corrupt Kanundda Council and his cronies have a massive new development planned that will make millions for them. But one of the few honest members on council gets wind of the scheme and arranges a meeting with the general manager, Jan Campbell-Jones, to brief her on the plot. But the meeting never happens and both the councillor and Jan disappear. Hodgkiss becomes involved, but the trail has gone cold and his fears for Jan's safety are soon realised. Summoned once again to the little rural town of Narralong to give evidence in an inquest, Hodgkiss is again confronted with a corpse, this time in the next room at the motel where he is staying. But was it suicide or was the woman murdered. Hodgkiss' acute powers of observation soon solve the riddle. The new editor of Kanundda's local free newspaper The Star has been treading on some very tender toes belonging to very influential and ruthless people. Then when she is found dead, locked in her office, it looks like suicide to Detective Inspector Donald Burke who is called in to investigate ... until Hodgkiss is involved.

Peter Sinclair

Books

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