Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight by R. Austin Freeman: Rare Book of the Week

Some rare books suddenly find a whole new audience thanks to republication. The British Library's Crime Classics series continues to power onwards, bringing rare titles from the Golden Age of Crime back into circulation. 

The latest is Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight by R. Austin Freeman, with an introduction by series editor and crime writer Martin Edwards, published this week. It's the first outing for R. Austin Freeman in the series and one of his finest books, first published in 1930. It's also one of the first and most influential inverted mysteries, in which the crime is known, and the tension is in the chase.

It also marks the novel debut of Dr. Thorndyke, one of the period' greatest characters as we're plunged into a story of a man on the run, blackmail, and murder.

R. Austin Freeman (1862–1943) was a British physician and author whose works often featured a focus on scientific detection methods, and he was a pioneer of experimental narratives within the crime genre.

Coming up in the same series this year are: 

• September: Metropolitan Mysteries: A Casebook of London's Detectives edited by Martin Edwards
• October: Dramatic Murder: A Lost Christmas Murder Mystery by Elizabeth Anthony
• November: Murder in Vienna by E. C. Lorac
• December: Tea on Sunday by Lettice Cooper