''Death on the Riviera'' is a 1952

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

by the British writer

John Bude Ernest Carpenter Elmore (4 November 1901 – 8 November 1957) was an English theatre producer and director, and writer of crime and fantasy novels. He wrote his crime novels under the pseudonym John Bude. Life Elmore was born in Maidstone, Kent ...

. Hubin p.56 It was part of a series featuring

Superintendent Superintendent may refer to: *Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank *Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator *Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...

Meredith of

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

. While Bude set many of his earlier novels in regional England, after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

they made increasing use of more exotic,

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continent, the major landmasses of Earth * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (al ...

settings. In 2016 it was reissued by the

British Library Publishing The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

as part of a group of republished crime novels from the

Golden Age of Detective Fiction The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The Golden Age proper is, in practice, usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was pre ...

Synopsis

On the trail of a gang of

counterfeiters The Counterfeiters or Counterfeiters may refer to: * ''The Counterfeiters'' (novel), a 1925 novel by André Gide * ''Counterfeiters'' (1940 film), a German film * ''The Counterfeiters'' (1948 film) * ''The Counterfeiters'' (2007 film), a 2007 ...

headed by London criminal Chalky Cabot, Meredith heads down to the

French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

after a tip-off from the local police. Joining forces with a local Inspector, they investigate along the coastline until their attention is drawn to the Villa Paloma owned by an eccentrical Englishwoman. Matters are complicated further when a dead body is discovered.

References

Bibliography

* Hubin, Allen J. ''Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography''. Garland Publishing, 1984. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015. 1952 British novels British mystery novels Novels by John Bude Novels set in Dunkirk Novels set in Monaco Novels set in Nice British detective novels British crime novels {{1950s-mystery-novel-stub