The Scarlet Button is a 1944 mystery thriller novel by Anthony Gilbert, the pen name of British writer Lucy Beatrice Malleson.[1] It is the fourteenth in her series featuring the London solicitor Arthur Crook, one of the more unscrupulous detectives of the Golden Age.[2] It was published in the United States, initially under the same name and later with the alternative title Murder is Cheap.

The Scarlet Button
First Edition (US)
AuthorAnthony Gilbert
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesArthur Crook
GenreMystery thriller
PublisherCollins Crime Club (UK)
Smith and Durrell (US)
Publication date
1944
Media typePrint
Preceded byHe Came by Night 
Followed byDon't Open the Door 

Synopsis edit

James Chigwell a prolific blackmailer is discovered bludgeoned to death. The murderer may be any one of his large number of victims.

References edit

  1. ^ Reilly p.660
  2. ^ Murphy p.120

Bibliography edit

  • Magill, Frank Northen . Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction: Authors, Volume 2. Salem Press, 1988.
  • Murphy, Bruce F. The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery. Springer, 1999.
  • Reilly, John M. Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers. Springer, 2015.