Tragedy at Law

Tragedy at Law follows a rather self-important High Court judge, Mr Justice Barber, as he moves from town to town presiding over cases in the Southern England circuit. When an anonymous letter arrives for Barber, warning of imminent revenge, he dismisses it as the work of a harmless lunatic. But then a second letter appears, followed by a poisoned box of the judge's favourite chocolates, and he begins to fear for his life. Enter barrister and amateur detective Francis Pettigrew, a man who was once in love with Barber's wife and has never quite succeeded in his profession - can he find out who is threatening Barber before it is too late?



Cyril Hare was the pseudonym for the distinguished lawyer Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark, born in Surrey in 1900. Hare served in various legal and judicial capacities and his best-known books include Suicide Expected (1939), Tragedy at Law (1942) and An English Murder (1953). He died in 1958.