
In 1979, the then President of the Detection Club, Julian Symons, edited a collection which, he said in his introduction, had ‘a distinctive approach. The contributors were asked to write a short story that should, in some way or another, concern a jury, although it was stressed that the jury need not be one sitting in a law court, nor need they number twelve. There might be a ‘jury’ of soldiers or policemen, suburban housewives or schoolboys, lawyers or old lags.’ The book as a whole, he said, ‘shows the crime story, like the Detection Club, offering talents as various as those of Cleopatra.’
Patricia Highsmith – Something the Cat Dragged In
H.R.F. Keating – Gup
Christianna Brand – Cloud Nine
Dick Francis – Twenty-One Good Men and True
Gwendoline Butler – The Rogue’s Twist
P.D. James – Great-Aunt Allie’s Fly-papers
Michael Innes – Pelly and Cullis
Celia Fremlin – Postgraduate Thesis
Michael Gilbert – Verdict of Three
Ngaio Marsh – Morepork
Michael Underwood – Murder at St Oswald’s
Peter Dickinson – Who Killed the Cat?
Julian Symons – Waiting for Mr McGregor