The Crooked Man

By Shelley Smith

Who will be next..?

Shelley Smith displays the downward spiral from petty thievery to murder through the life and crimes of Thomas Bates.

With multiple personas on the go, Bates seems unafraid of going too far.

There’s Grace Pickering, whose life he saves and who rewards him with an affection he avoids, until he finds out about her savings account, which he can only disengage through marriage.

His next victim, a man, he is forced to kill.

He marries again, for a dowry in jewels, but returns to Grace until he disposes of her with greater finality.

Bates’ past seems to be left behind him, until his last and final enterprise unexpectedly ends in suicide.

The story makes the headlines and Bates’ anonymous façade is put in jeopardy.

The innocence of the crime is invalidated by his past – will Bates get away with it this time..?

Nancy Bodington was born in 1912. Under the pen name of Shelley Smith, she wrote 15 crime and detective novels between 1942 and 1978.