There Was a Crooked Man

The tall, distinguished gentleman in the bowler hat who drove down from London one October evening must have had some compelling reason for seeking out old Charley Keldrick, woodworker and handyman, in his lonely wooden shack on the summit of Painswick Hill. Before that night was out, Crooked Charley died suddenly and violently, and it was a crooked mile that Detective-Inspector Peter Bradfield had to cover step by step, before he ferreted out the secret of the man in the bowler hat and unmasked a murderer of peculiar ruthlessness and cunning.