Death Sends for the Doctor (An Inspector Littlejohn Mystery)

Upper Square is the last stronghold of snobbery in Abbot’s Caldicott, a dying little metropolis in East Anglia, with only the remnants of queer old families residing there. Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard receives an anonymous tip-off about a murder and, upon calling the local constabulary, it seems that he is the only one aware of it. It isn’t long before the victim is discovered in this small town; Doctor Beharrell, a prominent physician, is found murdered in a secret room in his home. Before Littlejohn leaves Caldicott with the case solved, the strange history of this odd place comes to light and the repressions and inbreeding of the upper ten of Caldicott produce some queer twists of hatred. Littlejohn, whom David Holloway calls ‘the most courteous of all fictional detectives,’ finds all his good manners are needed in dealing with this strange affair among a crowd of characters who live in an atmosphere of days gone by.