Fedora Novels
     Lindy Grey Novels
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Lindy Grey Novels
 
 

Written at the same time as the early Fedora novels, the Lindy Grey series were entertaining private-detective thrillers, comprising over 4 titles.

Begin, Murderer! Lindsay Grey starts as an urbane man-about-town who solves murders that baffle the Oxford police. Self-described as “a one-time private detective of one-time private means”, Lindy (as he likes to be called) is not ashamed of living a dissolute life.

Original Title Year
Begin, Murderer! 1951
This is Jezebel 1952
Lady Lost 1953
The Shaken Leaf 1954

In the following novels, Grey is described as a detective who "is ready to indulge in violence or wisecracks, yet can still consult books on criminology and quote Shakespeare". Lady Lost, the third Grey novel, opens with Lindy groping for something to help a hangover. Of his neurotic fiancée, he comments that “her virtue as a fiancée is that she hasn’t got any”. In The Shaken Leaf he realizes that he smells “like the Mortlake brewery” and marvels that his “spirit-soaked breath” does not incommode other young women.

The Lindy Grey books were later adopted for BBC Radio Plays.

Of these novels, Prof. Songer writes that they "reveal a young man's perception of sophistication while they exhibit Cory's talent for wry humour and clever style".


 

 

   
     
   
 
 
 
     
 
 
 
Book Reviews
Begin, Murderer !
"Slick, ingenious 'whodunnit' " - Punch
"Mr. Cory may well turn out to be a British Raymond Chandler" - Birmingham Post

This is Jezebel
"Gloriously entertaining and gripping"- Manchester Evening News

The Shaken Leafis Jezebel
"well contructed, taut and convincing" - Bimginham Post
 
   
 
©2011 Desmond Cory., All rights reserved.