A shriek rang sharply out only to be chopped in two-exactly as though a hand had been clamped roughly on the screamer's mouth. It was followed by brusque, striding footsteps and the soft closing of a door.

It was purely by chance that David Beddoes and Alison Young stumbled on the strange house in Hampstead-a thick fog made it easy to mistake their destination-and thus set in motion the extraordinary train of events that was to end so sensationally. The house itself was peculiar, but it was the ghastly scream that rang out from upstairs just when they were leaving that crystallised their suspicions. Alice Campbell is an expert at keeping us on tenterhooks of suspense, and in this dramatic story she is admirably successful.

A Door Closed Softly was originally published in 1939. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

"She could not be unexciting if she tried" Times Literary Supplement