Ring for a noose

1899 – 9 December 1973

Pen name of English crime author Lucy Beatrice Malleson (<a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Gilbert_(author)>Wikipedia</a>). Born in London, she spent all her life there, and her affection for the city is clear from the strong sense of character and place in evidence in her work. She published 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook, a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives, such as Lord Peter Wimsey, who dominated the mystery field at the time. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas. Her thriller *The Woman in Red* (1941) was broadcast in the Uni…