Acknowledgments Read Online Free PDF Page B

Chief Inspector Kenny calling on Albert and saying: ‘If there’s one thing that makes me savage it’s futility.’ He proceeds to explain his sour mood: ‘one of those ordinary, rather depressing little stories which most murder cases are. There’s practically no mystery, no chase … nothing but a wretched little tragedy.’ From this downbeat start, the story develops splendidly.
    The only reason why I hesitated over picking ‘One Morning They’ll Hang Him’ was that it has found its way into several anthologies over the years. But in the end I could not – did not want to – resist temptation, and the story duly appeared in
Mysterious Pleasures.
To this day, it remains an enjoyable example of the story-teller’s art. And it is also true to this day that any crime writer looking for an interesting role model could do much worse than study the eclectic work of Margery Allingham.
    As for me, I’ve been reading and enjoying Allingham for more than forty years. All of which means that I was especially thrilled when a short story of mine won the very first CWA Margery Allingham prize. And I’m delighted that this special ebook edition contains not only ‘Acknowledgments’ but also two bonus stories that I wrote some years ago, and which also play games with the nature of the short story. ‘Are You Sitting Comfortably?’ was my very first crime story of any kind to achieve success – it won a prize that resulted in its being published in Bella (in the days when that magazine published fiction) and it was then picked up by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine – all this before I’d had a single novel published: very exciting! ‘Neighbours’ is a story from the Nineties that I much enjoyed writing – and I hope that a new generation of readers will enjoy it too.
    Martin Edwards

About the Author
    Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime writer whose sixth and most recent Lake District Mystery, featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind, is
The Frozen Shroud.
Earlier books in the series are
The Coffin Trail
(short-listed for the Theakston’s prize for best British crime novel of 2006),
The Cipher Garden, The Arsenic Labyrinth
(short-listed for the Lakeland Book of the Year award),
The Serpent Pool
and
The Hanging Wood
.
    Martin has written eight novels about lawyer Harry Devlin, the first of which,
All the Lonely People
, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for the best first crime novel of the year. In addition he has published a stand-alone novel of psychological suspense,
Take My Breath Away
, and a much acclaimed novel featuring Dr Crippen,
Dancing for the Hangman
. The latest Devlin novel,
Waterloo Sunset
, appeared in 2008.
    Martin completed Bill Knox’s last book,
The Lazarus Widow
, and has published a collection of short stories,
Where Do You Find Your Ideas? and other stories
; ‘Test Drive’ was short-listed for the CWA Short Story Dagger in 2006, while ‘The Bookbinder’s Apprentice’ won the same Dagger in 2008. In 2014 he was the inaugural winner of the CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Prize for ‘Acknowledgements’.
    A well-known commentator on crime fiction, he has edited more than twenty anthologies and published eight non-fiction books, including a study of homicide investigation,
Urge to Kill
. He is also the author of a ground-breaking study of Golden Age detective fiction,
The Golden Age of Murder
, to be published in 2014. In 2008 he was elected to membership of the prestigious Detection Club. He was subsequently appointed Archivist to the Detection Club, and is also Archivist to the Crime Writers’ Association. He received the Red Herring Award for services to the CWA in 2011.
    In his spare time Martin is a partner in a national law firm, Weightmans LLP. His website is www.martinedwardsbooks.com and his blog