Walling, RAJ


Robert Alfred John Walling (1869-1949) was an English journalist. He invented the upper-class private investigator Philip Tolefree. He was born in Exeter; his father was the journalist RH Walling. He married Florence Greet and lived in Plymouth, where he edited the Western Independent. Walling also wrote travel articles and biographies. He did not begin to write mysteries until he was nearly sixty. His series characters were Garstang and Philip Tolefree.

 

“If the reader is, as I was, entirely and gigantically bluffed, in a fashion worthy of Agatha Christie, as to the identity of the killer, he will join me in urging Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton to change their slogan and advertise ‘the brilliant Mr. R.A.J. Walling’.” – Torquemada, Observer, 26th January 1936

 

Bibliography

 

The Strong Room (1927)

The Dinner Party at Bardolph's aka That Dinner at Bardolph's (1927)

Murder at the Keyhole (1929)

The Man with the Squeaky Voice (1930)

The Stroke of One (1931)

The Fatal Five Minutes (1932)

Behind the Yellow Blind aka Murder at Midnight (1932)

Follow the Blue Car aka In Time for Murder (1933)

The Tolliver Case aka Prove It, Mr Tolefree (1934)

VIII to IX aka The Bachelor Flat Mystery (1934)

The Five Suspects aka Legacy of Death (1935)

The Cat and the Corpse aka The Corpse in the Green Pyjamas (1935)

Mr Tolefree's Reluctant Witnesses aka The Corpse in the Coppice (1936)

The Corpse in the Crimson Slippers (1936)

The Corpse with the Dirty Face aka The Crime in Cumberland Court (1936)

The Mystery of Mr Mock aka The Corpse with the Floating Foot (1937)

Bury Him Deeper aka Marooned with Murder (1937)

The Coroner Doubts aka The Corpse with the Blue Cravat (1938)

More than One Serpent aka The Corpse with the Grimy Glove (1938)

Dust in the Vault aka The Corpse with the Blistered Hand (1939)

They Liked Entwhistle aka The Corpse with the Redheaded Friend (1939)

Why Did Trethewy Die? aka The Spider and the Fly (1940)

By Hook or by Crook aka By Hook or Crook (1941)

Castle Dinas aka The Corpse with the Eerie Eye (1942)

The Doodled Asterisk aka A Corpse by Any Other Name (1943)

A Corpse Without a Clue aka The Corpse Without a Clue (1945)

The Late Unlamented (1948)

The Corpse with the Missing Watch (1949)

 

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