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Francis Beeding

This page lists novels by Francis Beeding. Franciss Beeding was the pen name used by the writing partnership of John Palmer and Hilary A. Saunders.

Cover images are, when possible, of the first UK edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

 

Francis Beeding: Novels

The Seven Sleepers

Francis Beeding

Hutchinson

1925

Later editions published by Hodder & Stoughton.

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The Little White Hag

Francis Beeding

Hutchinson

1926

Later editions published by Hodder & Stoughton.

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The Hidden Kingdom

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1927

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The House of Doctor Edwardes

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1927

Filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as Spellbound and subsequently published in book form in the US with the title Spellbound.

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The Six Proud Walkers

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1928

"Murder and intrigue - Geoffrey Carroll's daily companions after his extraordinary encounter with one of the 'Six' on the Italian highway. Death - both above ground and down in the dark catacombs of Rome, looking over his shoulder, waiting. He is captured, he is drugged; but, under the stimulus of the preparation he acquires such astounding courage as to make possible a miraculous escape. Finally, Carroll and Colonel Granby of the Secret Service set out systematically to unwind the network of intrigue into which they have been plunged, to run to earth the six proud men who walk, who do not hesitate to kill, whose activities, if they had their way, would have few limits."
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The 5 Flamboys

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1929

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Pretty Sinister

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1929

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The Four Armourers

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1930

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The League of Discontent

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1930

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Death Walks in Eastrepps

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1931

"Heralded as one of the greatest detective books of all time on first publication in 1931, Death Walks in Eastrepps is a genuine page-turner, set in a picturesque English seaside resort and with a plot involving a double identity, a series of murders, blackmail, a courtroom drama and, unmasked at the end, an unlikely suspect."
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The Three Fishers

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1931

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Murder Intended

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1932

"By the strange terms of a will, a family has to meet each year for dinner at the house of a certain Aunt Agatha. The 'rich old lady who won't die!' At one of these annual celebrations, at which Aunt Agatha is not present, the possibilities of murder are discussed, especially by a dissolute nephew of the old lady. Next morning the dissolute youth is dead. Ten days later another member of the party is dead - both apparently death by misadventure. That, at least, was the coroner's verdict, and it would never have been questioned but for an out-of-work journalist, who gave a drink to Agatha's butler."
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Take It Crooked

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1932

"At typical Francis Beeding book, with Colonel Granby again as the hero: this time he is seen in an unwanted guide - that of a bridegroom! But Col Granby is not allowed even to have his honeymoon in peace; he receives a call to duty on his arrival in Paris with his bride, and is immediately plunged into the next thrilling and exciting aadventure of his career, with plenty of crooked turns to take."
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The Emerald Clasp

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1933

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The Two Undertakers

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1933

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The One Sane Man

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1934

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Mr Bobadil

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1934

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Death in Four Letters

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1935

"An Aeroplane crashes on Worplesfield golf links. The only person at hand is F.X.D. a journalist. The pilot is dead, the passenger unconscious. Papers in the passenger's pocket show him to be a well-known newspaper proprietor; but they show too that he - the great patriot and publicist - is intimately connected with a secret international syndicate for the sale of arms and munitions. F.X.D. determines to defeat the aims of the syndicate, and at once finds himself involved in a network of danger and intrigue, culminating in the scene when he visits a secret meeting of the syndicate, and only - but that would be telling! "
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The Norwich Victims

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1935

"A middle-aged schoolteacher wins the French lottery and looks around for somewhere safe to invest her prize. Unfortunately for her she decides to consult the unscrupulous John Throgmorton, and he seizes a once in a lifetime opportunity, murdering the unsuspecting Miss Haslett and sending his secretary and partner in crime, Hermione Taylor, to Paris to collect the money. Throgmorton's devious plan is executed to perfection, and it seems that nothing can go wrong. But then he receives an unexpected visitor."
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The Eight Crooked Trenches

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1936

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The Nine Waxed Faces

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1936

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Hell Let Loose

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1937

"A swift succession of events carries the tale from Madrid, with its Republican and Communist background, to Seville, where the insurgents are in control, and where Granby himself unexpectedly arrives to lend a hand in person."
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The Erring Under-Secretary

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1937

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No Fury

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1937

Published in the US as Murdered: One by One.

"Miss Valerie Beachamp was the sort of woman novelist all right-minded people fly from. She was leader of a small literary society called the Esoterics, and she tyrannised over them so much that they planned revenge, but when Miss Beachamp found out that they had succeeded in making a fool of her, tragedy came swiftly to her former friends. She was found murdered - and each one of those friends felt that they were suspected of the crime. Haunted by fear of arrest and by their own consciences they were further terrorised by the murders of several of the members of their society. Which of the Esoterics is the common enemy?"
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The Black Arrows

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1938

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The Big Fish

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1938

Published in the US as Heads Off at Midnight.

"Dominating this new Beeding novel is the mighty figure of Don Belisario, Peruvian Minister in Paris. Don Belisario with his outrageous clothes and his diplomatic graces, Don Belisario with his charming relatives and his professorial friend, Don Belisario with his knowledge of the Secret, so badly wanted by his enemy and neighbour- the Senator of Seyssel: A Beeding creation of the first magnitude is this Don Belisario - so diplomatic of speech, so undiplomatic in method, when he decides to investigate the Secret of the Big Fish."
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He Could Not Have Slipped

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1939

"Francis Beeding's uncanny flair for nosing out the secret excitements of the day's news is again demonstrated in this furiously paced novel of adventure and intrigue in the 20th century manner."
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The Ten Holy Horrors

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1939

"Colonel Granby, as P.B.3. Head of the British Intelligence Service, finds himself, with Alec Ogilvie, a Member of Parliament, involved in a life and death struggle with von Nessel, most dangerous Nazi agent in England."
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Eleven Were Brave

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1940

"It would be idle to pretend that this story bears no relation to present history. Famous names are freely mentioned and many of the events described are fresh in the public mind. The author has, moreover, given to these events a shape which, in essentials, faithfully conveys his own impressions of the major incidents which attended the tragic collapse of the leaders of France following the retreat of the Allied Armies from the Meuse in May last."
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Not a Bad Show: A War Thriller

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1940

Published in the US as The Secret Weapon.

"The outbreak of war finds Roger Marples on board a liner which is torpedoed in mid-Atlantic. Already he has discovered some part of the formula of Hitler's secret weapon; now, working with Colonel Granby and against the Nazi agent Manntesfel, his mission is to complete it by finding out the portion which can only be found (and at what peril!) on German soil. In the course of his adventurous career he meets Hitler and Goering; finds himself (with Germany conniving) in authority in a concentration camp; and finally, by the most hairbreadth, breath-taking escapes, works his way back to England."
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The 12 Disguises

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1942

"The Twelve Disguises is THE thriller about Nazi occupied France."
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There Are 13

Francis Beeding

Hodder & Stoughton

1946

"First and foremost, a thriller, but a thriller that lifts a veil still hanging over the activities of the French Underground Movement, that gives a gripping, individual account of the Dieppe Raid, and sheds new light on the character of that super-opportunist, Laval, Squire of Chateldon and owner of the thirteen incriminating gramophone records from which the book takes its title."
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Last updated August 2018