He flung open a drawer and took from it a heavy dagger in a sheath with blood-stains upon it. On the blade were engraved the words, “Blut und Ehre!”

Frank Everett was a rising young press attaché at the British Embassy in Paris - until he was found dead in his Rue St. Georges apartment, a knife wound to the throat. Was it a political assassination, a crime passionnel, or possibly even suicide?

The foreign office call in the redoubtable Detective Inspector Richardson, who travels to Paris and must work with the French police in solving the case. He soon discovers that a mysterious coded number is one of the primary clues - if only he can decipher its meaning and unmask Everett’s assassin.

The Case of the Dead Diplomat was originally published in 1935. This new edition, the first in many decades, features an introduction by crime novelist Martin Edwards, author of acclaimed genre history The Golden Age of Murder.

“Good entertainment as well as a perfectly sound detective story.” Daily Telegraph

“The story is remarkably well written…highly entertaining reading.” Birmingham Gazette