A Case for Sergeant Beef

Over at The Books of Leo Bruce—since the first post-war Sgt. Beef novel now seems to be out of print, and it is my policy to provide texts of all Leo Bruce’s out-of-print novels—I have begun providing the text, chaptermeal, of Leo Bruce’s Case for Sergeant Beef (London, 1947).

      

The Books of Leo Bruce

To commemorate the eleventy-first anniversary of the birth of Rupert Croft-Cooke (June 20, 1903 – June 10, 1979), I have established a blog, “The Books of Leo Bruce”, to publicise Croft-Cooke’s two series of detective novels which he wrote under that pseudonym.  Sadly, some of those books, too long out of print, are now almost impossible to find; I shall provide e-texts thereof—though, of course, whenever possible, readers really ought to buy copies of the novels.
I have begun by providing the first chapter of Case for Three Detectives; further chapters will be added later.

UPDATE I (22 June):  I’ve added to that site a “lost” Sergeant Beef short story, “Beef for Christmas”, hitherto found only in the 1957 Christmas issue of The Tatler and Bystander.

UPDATE II (23 June):  Leo Bruce books in print:

Case for Three Detectives 

Case with No Conclusion 
Case with Four Clowns 
Case for Sergeant Beef 
Dead Man’s Shoes

 Our Jubilee Is Death
 Jack on the Gallows Tree

 Furious Old Women


 Die All, Die Merrily

Such Is Death 

Death in Albert Park
Death at Hallows End (hb)
Death at Hallows End (pb)
Death at St. Asprey’s School
Death of a Commuter 
Death with Blue Ribbon 
Death on Allhallowe’en 
Death in the Middle Watch 
Death of a Bovver Boy
Murder in Miniature and Other Stories (hb)

Murder in Miniature and Other Stories (pb)

UPDATE III (24 June):  I’ve added the second chapter of Case for Three Detectives.

UPDATE IV (29 June):  the remaining chapters of Case for Three Detectives are all now available.

UPDATE V (3 July):  all chapters of another Sergeant Beef novel, Case with Ropes and Rings (1940)—which, sadly, is long out of print—are now available.

UPDATE VI (13 July):  all chapters of another two out-of-print Sergeant Beef novels, Case without a Corpse (1937) and Neck and Neck (1951), are also now available; furthermore, all chapters of the last Sergeant Beef novel, Cold Blood (1952), have been formatted and will be published on 1 August.

UPDATE VII (1 August):  all chapters of Cold Blood have been posted.

UPDATE VIII (25 September):  all chapters of Death by the Lake have been posted.