''Thou Shell of Death'' is a 1936
detective novel
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...
by the British author
Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudony ...
, written under the pen name of Nicholas Blake. It is the series in a series of novels featuring the
private detective
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigat ...
Nigel Strangeways
Nigel Strangeways is a fictional British private detective created by Cecil Day-Lewis, writing under the pen name of Nicholas Blake. He was one of the prominent detectives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, appearing in sixteen novels betwee ...
. It was published during the
Golden Age of Detective Fiction
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. While the Golden Age proper is usually taken to refer to works from that period, this type of f ...
and features a
country house mystery
The closed circle of suspects is a common element of detective fiction, and the subgenre that employs it can be referred to as the closed circle mystery. Less precisely, this subgenre – works with the closed circle literary device � ...
. The title is a quote from the
Jacobean play ''
The Revenger's Tragedy
''The Revenger's Tragedy'' is an English-language Jacobean revenge tragedy which was performed in 1606, and published in 1607 by George Eld. It was long attributed to Cyril Tourneur, but "The consensus candidate for authorship of ''The Reve ...
''.
[Scaggs p.27]
References
Bibliography
* Scaggs, John. ''Crime Fiction''. Psychology Press, 2005.
* Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015.
* Stanford, Peter. ''C Day-Lewis: A Life''. A&C Black, 2007.
1936 British novels
Novels by Cecil Day-Lewis
British crime novels
Collins Crime Club books
Novels set in County Wexford
Novels set in Somerset
Novels set in London
British detective novels
British mystery novels
{{1930s-crime-novel-stub