Free (Kindle) Except For One Thing by John Russell Fearn [Crime Planning Thriller]

[ATDrake]

Except For One Thing by the late British author John Russell Fearn (ISFDB, Wikipedia, SFE) is his vintage standalone crime thriller with a premeditative twist, this one the story of a man planning to commit “the perfect crime” with the unwitting consultation of a Chief Inspector friend, whose budding suspicions may not come soon enough to stop him in time, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press.

This was originally published in 1947 by Stanley Paul using the pseudonym Hugo Blayn. Even though Fearn was a prolific multi-genre pulp writer with many publications to his credit, so far we've only seen his western and occasional science fiction freebies, so it's nice to get a look at some of his other-genre work, especially one with an interesting and not often-used premise (but apparently there was a cluster of these around this time, with Dial M for Murder, How to Murder Your Wife, and How to Murder a Rich Uncle in film releases over the next couple of decades).

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else worldwide that Amazon sells, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive or else program)

Description
Just how possible is the perfect crime? And if committed, who would know?

Richard Harvey, or “Ricky” to those close to him, is engaged to Valerie Hadfield, a wealthy actress with whom he fell in love with.

However, as time has gone on during their engagement, he’s realised she’s not the women he thought she was.

Despite his wishes for the engagement to be brought to an end, the vicious and vindictive Valerie threatens to cause a scandal, ruining his standing as a reputable chemist.

More recently, Richard finds the affections of Joyce Prescott, a smart and friendly woman, and the two wish to marry.

Frustrated with his situation, Richard muses over ways in which he can be rid of Valerie, freeing the way for his marriage to Joyce.

It is at this point that he bumps into Chief Inspector Garth of Scotland Yard, a friend with whom he’s worked with in the past on cases that require his expert scientific abilities.

With other members of the police force, the group soon get to discussing the nature of murder cases and modern forensic techniques. Garth believes that the advances in science make it virtually impossible for someone to commit the “perfect crime.”

This gets Richard thinking about his options…

With all of his experience working alongside the police force, particularly in forensics, he has all the knowledge he needs.

All seems to be going to plan, he has thought of everything; covered his tracks in every way he could conceive.

However, his own ego soon begins to betray him…

He hasn’t in fact been quite as thorough as he had first thought and his plans soon begins unstuck as the tenacious Inspector Garth quickly begins to see the cracks in Richard’s story…

Except for One Thing is a thrilling work of crime fiction from one of the genre’s greats.

[Dr. Drib]

I almost went to bed without planning a crime.

Now I can sleep like a baby!

Thank you!

[ZodWallop]

Thanks man!

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I almost went to bed without planning a crime.

Now I can sleep like a baby!

Thank you!

An author added to "sleep like a baby"

"waking up every hour to cry"

(the character was injured).