Shelf Life

There's been a death in police custody.
The police are disappointed that a gang of youths, known by them to be responsible for vandalising many local homes, are let off by the magistrates with just a caution. That same night one of the youths is found drunk in the street, put into a cell to sleep it off, and dies there. Immediately there’s a public outcry: ‘Death in Police Custody’. And the situation gets even trickier when it’s revealed that Sergeant Watson’s daughter Pam is pregnant, and that the dead youth was the father.
Scotland Yard is sent for, and Douglas Clark’s regulars, Chief Superintendent Masters and Chief Inspector Green, are soon engaged in another of their meticulously logical enquiries. And once again Mr Clark comes up with an unusual and startling form of murder by poison: this time the poison is gold!
Shelf Life is another tensely dramatic and intriguingly puzzling thriller from Douglas Clark.
Douglas Clark was born in Lincolnshire, 1919. He wrote over 20 crime novels and under other names, including James Ditton and Peter Hosier.