The Layton Court Mystery

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His most enduring character is Roger Sheringham who featured in 10 Anthony Berkeley novels and two posthumous collections of short stories. The census collection is designed so that each group of postcodes should contain at least 100 people (50 in Scotland).

But our wannabe detective is suspicious. He stretches things to try and make it appear to be a murder, just because he wants it to be. Assisting him is Alexander Grierson, an old time friend of Roger and a newly engaged man. Will he concentrate on the murder or would he prefer to spend time with his fiancee? For daily news from Teesside's courts direct to your inbox, go here to sign up to our free court newsletter Read More Related Articles

Victor Stanworth, a genial old man of sixty, apparently without a care in the world, is entertaining a party of friends at his country house, Layton Court. One morning he is found shot in the library. Was it suicide or murder? This novel begins with the classic house party setting. Author Roger Sheringham and his friend Alexander Grierson have been invited to stay with the wealthy businessman Mr Victor Stanworth. Neither knew their host well, but he appears to enjoy entertaining and to be jolly and outgoing. Other guests include his sister in law, Lady Cynthia Stanworth, Mrs Shannon and her daughter, Barbara and Mrs Plant. Other characters include ex-prize fighter, now butler, Graves and Mr Stanworth’s private secretary, Major Jefferson. During the house party, Alexander becomes engaged to Barbara, although when the book begins, she suddenly calls off the engagement without giving a reason. This is how Anthony Berkeley, in a somewhat touching preface to his father, expressed his dissatisfaction with the infallible sleuths of detective fiction, and indicated his desire to create something different. The result was Roger Sheringham, who makes his debut appearance here in Berkeley's first detective novel - and makes several incorrect deductions even within the first chapter. Layton came from an abusive past; he was an angry man who threatened violence to friends he fell out with and even assaulted his own mother.

Watch me smash your face today, then stab you leaving you unable to walk. You think I'm kidding. Let's f****** see it. See what you do when you get me wound up like this," stated one. Roger Sheringham, one of the guests, determines to solve the mystery. He sets about it as he might do in real life. He is not one of those hawk-eyed, tight-lipped detectives who pursue their inexorable and silent way to the very heart of things. He makes a mistake or two occasionally, but he does not conceal any of the evidence and the reader has the same data to go upon as the detective, and is carried breathlessly through to the end. Anyone else who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team, so our Fraud team can investigate. Court staff review your papers. If they accept them, they are filed. If court staff accept your papers a day after you submit them, your papers will still be considered filed on the date you submitted them It emerged that Layton had served time in Amsterdam for a violent handbag snatch, whilst he was living in Holland and working as a forklift driver in 2008.

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