Romney Leonaur Ltd Romney Pringle, Gentleman Rogue, The Adventures of a Scoundrel and Sleuth

'Set a thief to catch a thief', Enter Romney Pringle, Con-man'Clifford Ashdown', was the collective pseudonym employed by Dr. Richard Austin Freeman-creator of the famous Golden Age, fictional medico-detective, Dr. Thorndyke- and his colleague, Dr. John James Pitcairn (1860-1936). 'The Adventures of Romney Pringle (1902) and its sequel, 'The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle(1903) are innovative collections of British Edwardian crime fiction containing six stories each. Pringle is one literature's first "gentleman con men" and the tales in which he features pioneered the "inverted" crime story format -wherein the reader first understands the crime and thereafter experiences the detective's progress to its solving. Pringle poses as a London, "literary agent.", but is in reality a cunning fraudster who preys upon criminals, who cannot then report him to the police. This latter day 'Scarlet Pimpernel' character, is a master of disguise and an avid cyclist who uses his bicycle to flee crime scenes or discover fresh targets for his schemes. This special Leonaur edition has been enhanced by the addition of a further five, bonus, lesser- known stories by Freeman: 'A Signal Success', 'A Woman's Vengeance', 'By the Black Deep', ' The Bronze Parrot' and 'Powder Blue And Hawthorne'. Co-written with Pitcairn, an amateur investigator death mystery is set in a sea-side village. Also included is a tense, psychological crime story of revenge, an antique bronze parrot which inadvertently triggers a series of bizarre disruptions, an historical mystery concerning the connection between a robbery and a sudden death and the tale of a young man's attempts to succeed in career and romance.Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.