Victor Canning

Freckled fugitive Smiler is never far from trouble. After hitching a ride south, Smiler finds his way to North Devon and the estate of "The Duchess"–a former fairground fortune-teller who now runs a farm. Here, he stays and tends to circus animals housed for the winter. When a peregrine falcon...

On a night of wild storms, two troubled figures escape from captivity. One is a 15-year-old boy, Samuel Miles, a.k.a. "Smiler", wrongly convicted of theft and sent to a young offenders institution. The other is a cheetah, Yarra, a restless resident of Longleat Wildlife Park. Both are in danger...

Young Paul Ashcroft has travelled to the beautiful French Riviera. His goal: to make a lot of money. His methods: more than questionable. Following his motto "the world owes me a living", he steals and swindles—using what he needs for himself and passing on the rest to those less fortunate...

The collected short stories of the great Victor Canning, originally written and published in the 1950s and 1960s—full of humor, charm, and in true fashion of classic crime writing. Canning’s heartwarming vignettes and clever mysteries take us from a Welsh valley to a far-off island and...

Best-selling crime writer Geoffrey Gilroy is overcome with jealousy when his wife’s newfound success in the genre begins to eclipse his....

A life-affirming story of family and personal self-discovery. When George, the eldest son of Matthew Silverman, announces he won’t follow in his father’s footsteps as editor of the family-owned local newspaper, the family finds itself on a course for change. The newspaper has been going for...

What’s going on behind the doors of Fountain Inn? When her employer suddenly disappears, young Grace Kirkstall finds herself accepting a new job at a new company in the same building - an oasis of tranquility off the streets of London. Ben and Helen Brown’s start-up company’s pitch is that...

The Minerva Club might look like any other London gentlemen’s club, but behind its respectable and discreet façade, some of the most ambitious schemes for heists, money-making, and evasion of the law are being worked out. It’s an exclusive club for criminals. Entry qualification: Members...

How far could you go living in another’s shoes? In a mid-life moment, Paul Morison travels from America to England to discover his mother’s roots. A chance encounter and an uncanny resemblance leads him to agree to assume the identity of a famous singer for a while. But it’s not just the...

Mr Edgar Finchley, unmarried clerk, aged 45, is told to take a holiday for the first time in his life. He decides to go to the seaside. But Fate has other plans in store... From his abduction by a cheerful crook, to his smuggling escapade off the south coast, the timid but plucky Mr Finchley is...

An ebullient Mr Finchley is about to propose marriage to a lady he had rescued from mishap, when he is sent to Paris by his firm. There he manages to upset a boat, adopt a stray orphan, and get himself kidnapped. The fine tangle he gets into takes some unravelling! Only when eventually back in...

Mr Finchley takes a fancy to a horse-drawn caravan that he sees for sale, but his new wife does not relish the prospect of a caravan journey, so he sets off alone to explore the countryside and go house-hunting....