Mystery and Crime Lowndes, Marie Belloc: One of Those Ways [Det.Hercules Popeau]. v1. 12 Sep 2026

[GrannyGrump]

The second Hercules Popeau book, following The Lonely House.

Angela Graham, a skilled gambler, suffers a severe losing streak and has lost everything. She is offered a job by Russian Prince Oranovsky as companion to his elderly cousin on the French Riviera. So, she leaves behind friends and love interest, and travels to Monte Carlo. Angela soon realizes she is trapped like a prisoner in the Princess's house while dangerous agents hunt down the Prince. A chance encounter with Detective Hercules Popeau of the Sûreté offers a potential lifeline as danger closes in.

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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 1929 and is in the public domain where copyright is “Life+70” or less, and in the USA.
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