Francis Vivian Books in Order

After describing disturbing symptoms to a chief constable, Mr. Lomas is found dead at a lock. Inspector Knollis recognizes signs of cocaine poisoning and begins tracing the circumstances behind a death that initially seems connected to the water.

Robert Dexter’s murder breaks five quiet years in Burnham and brings Inspector Knollis back from Scotland Yard. Faced with no obvious motive and numerous alibis, he must disentangle the household and local relationships surrounding the victim.

Inspector Knollis investigates two dead pets marked by blue cords in a village household. When the owner’s husband is also found murdered with a matching cord, the disturbing incidents become a connected mystery demanding a more serious explanation.

Inspector Knollis’s country weekend is disrupted by Richard Huntingdon’s shooting. The victim’s respectable reputation conceals enemies and intimate entanglements, while a toy yacht found near his body supplies a puzzling link to an anonymous gift for his daughter.

A doctor befriends an artist while visiting Algiers, then returns to England and is strangled in his surgery. Inspector Knollis investigates the artist’s disappearance and a curious drawing of a laughing dog connected to the victim’s final hours.

Unusual behavior by a swarm of bees leads to a corpse in an abandoned well and evidence of cyanide. Inspector Knollis investigates the dead man’s affairs, jealous acquaintances, and financial ties to discover who engineered his death.

An innkeeper determined to prevent his sister and niece from marrying is found killed with an expert archer’s missing arrows. Inspector Knollis must unravel competing courtships and threats before the elusive killer has another opportunity to strike.

A murder-mystery enthusiast becomes involved when a neighbor’s wife is killed. Inspector Knollis faces conflicting suspicions, deliberate attempts to implicate the husband, and an amateur investigator whose interference occasionally produces an unexpectedly useful observation.

A respected jeweler’s poisoned body is discovered in a wrecked car, drawing Inspector Knollis into a murder investigation. The inquiry exposes the victim’s dishonest dealings, while Knollis’s eccentric friend Brother Ignatius contributes to the unfolding mystery.

Brother Ignatius meets a stranger on a train and senses their lives will become connected. When the man becomes a murder suspect, Knollis investigates amid obstructive local loyalties and information the priest cannot disclose because of confession.

Unpopular newspaper editor Edward Packman is murdered, leaving staff, relatives, and associates with ample motives. As investigators uncover secret relationships, inheritance questions, and blackmail, two suspects disappear and the challenge becomes turning suspicion into proof.