The Notched Hairpin
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First UK ed.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Previous owner
A master of subtle deduction and razor-sharp reasoning, Gerald Heard's fictional detective Mr. Donahue — a thinly veiled homage to Sherlock Holmes — returns in The Notched Hairpin, a collection of mystery stories that presents the brilliant, bee-keeping recluse at his most fiendishly clever. Set against a backdrop of mid-twentieth-century England, the cases within chronicle a series of seemingly impenetrable puzzles, each hinging on a single, overlooked physical clue — in this instance, the peculiarly notched hairpin of the title — that unravels an entire web of deception. Heard, best known as a polymath and spiritual philosopher, brings an extraordinary intellectual rigour to the crime fiction genre, constructing plots of near-geometric precision while imbuing each tale with a quiet, atmospheric tension. His prose is cool and observational, rewarding the attentive reader with layered clues and a sense of deeply satisfying logical resolution. For devotees of the Golden Age detective tradition and admirers of the cerebral mystery, this volume stands as a testament to Heard's remarkable, if underappreciated, gifts as a storyteller — leaving one to wonder just what other secrets his detective has yet to uncover.
Author: Gerald Heard
Format: Hardback
Published: 1951, Cassell and Company Ltd., London
Genre: Crime fiction
Edition: First UK ed.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Previous owner
A master of subtle deduction and razor-sharp reasoning, Gerald Heard's fictional detective Mr. Donahue — a thinly veiled homage to Sherlock Holmes — returns in The Notched Hairpin, a collection of mystery stories that presents the brilliant, bee-keeping recluse at his most fiendishly clever. Set against a backdrop of mid-twentieth-century England, the cases within chronicle a series of seemingly impenetrable puzzles, each hinging on a single, overlooked physical clue — in this instance, the peculiarly notched hairpin of the title — that unravels an entire web of deception. Heard, best known as a polymath and spiritual philosopher, brings an extraordinary intellectual rigour to the crime fiction genre, constructing plots of near-geometric precision while imbuing each tale with a quiet, atmospheric tension. His prose is cool and observational, rewarding the attentive reader with layered clues and a sense of deeply satisfying logical resolution. For devotees of the Golden Age detective tradition and admirers of the cerebral mystery, this volume stands as a testament to Heard's remarkable, if underappreciated, gifts as a storyteller — leaving one to wonder just what other secrets his detective has yet to uncover.