Helen Passes By - Punshon E.R.

“I don’t like it, Olive. No good, plain evidence, not so much as the smell of a fingerprint. Nothing but psychology and an atmosphere of doubt, menace, and suspicion.”

Bobby Owen’s latest case begins with him warily lending five shillings to an old reprobate. But this is driven from his mind when he hears of the murder of one Itter Bain, found shot in the woods. Bobby is called into the case, one already made controversial by the alleged shielding of an aristocratic suspect. The evidence certainly ought to make the aristocrat a figure of particular interest to the police. But Bobby needs to tread lightly to prevent a national scandal.

Other suspects include the irresistibly beautiful Helen, Wing Commander Winstanley (a rival for Helen’s affections), and a suspiciously well-informed reporter on a local newspaper. All the while the killer is biding time before striking again – unless Bobby can unmask the fiend first.

Helen Passes By was first published in 1947, the twenty-third of the Bobby Owen mysteries, a series eventually including thirty-five novels. This edition features a new introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

“What is distinction? … in the works of Mr. E.R. Punshon we salute it every time.” Dorothy L. Sayers