This is a vintage murder mystery. Respected crime writer Frank Cairns plots the perfect murder – a murder that he himself will commit. Cairns intends to murder the hit-and-run driver who killed his young son, but when his intended victim is found dead and Cairns becomes the prime suspect, the author insists that he has been framed. An old friend of Cairns calls in private detective Nigel Strangeways, who must unravel a fiendishly plotted mystery if he is to discover what really happened to George Rattery. The Beast Must Die is one of Nicholas Blake's most acclaimed novels and was picked by the Observer as one of the 1,000 novels everyone must read. A Nigel Strangeways murder mystery – the perfect introduction to the most charming and erudite detective in Golden Age crime fiction.