Mystery and Crime Lowndes, Marie Belloc: The Lonely House [Det.Hercules Popeau]. v1. 12 Sep 2026

[GrannyGrump]

Introducing Detective Hercules Popeau.

After the death of her aunt, Lily Fairfield leaves her sheltered life to stay with distant relatives, the Count and Countess Polda, at their secluded villa in Monaco.

Lily’s initial enthusiasm is shadowed by an eerie atmosphere, strange occurrences, and unsettling interactions with her relatives and their servants; and it becomes apparent that life at La Solitude may not be as wholesome as it first seemed. The discovery of a dead body on the estate grounds plunges Lily into immediate danger, forcing her to turn to Hercules Popeau for help as a web of crime closes in around her.

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Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes (née Belloc; 5 August 1868 – 14 November 1947) was an English novelist, and sister of author Hilaire Belloc. Active from 1898 until her death, she had a literary reputation for combining exciting incident with psychological suspense. Her most famous novel, The Lodger (1913), based on the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888, has been adapted for the screen five different times.

She produced over forty novels in all — mainly mysteries, and occasionally based on real-life crimes, though she herself resented being classed as a crime writer. She created the French detective Hercules Popeau, possibly before Agatha Christie’s creation of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot; this initiated a dispute between the two authors, with Lowndes claiming that Christie had effectively stolen her character and complaining to the Society of Authors.

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This book was first published in 1920 and is in the public domain where copyright is “Life+70” or less, and in the USA.
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