Nemesis at Raynham Parva

Nemesis at Raynham Parva
American edition
AuthorJ.J. Connington
LanguageEnglish
SeriesSir Clinton Driffield
GenreDetective
PublisherGollancz
Publication date
1929
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint
Preceded byThe Case with Nine Solutions 
Followed byThe Boathouse Riddle 

Nemesis at Raynham Parva is a 1929 detective novel by the British author Alfred Walter Stewart, published under his pseudonym J.J. Connington.[1] It is the fifth in his series of seventeen novels featuring the Golden Age Detective Sir Clinton Driffield. It was published in the United States by Little, Brown and Company under the alternative title Grim Vengeance.[2]

It is a Country house mystery, a genre at its height during the interwar years. Connington possibly intended this to be the last Driffield novel, because it had shown Sir Clinton briefly crossing over to the other side of the law. Connington switched to a new series character Superintendent Ross for his next two novels, before bringing back Sir Clinton in a fresh story The Boathouse Riddle in 1931.[3] Once again he is a Chief Constable and no mention is made of the events at Raynham Parva. In the following eleven stories he never behaves so high-handedly as he did in this case.[4] The author later describe it as "rather a poor one" when assessing his works.[5]

  1. ^ Murphy p.152
  2. ^ Reilly p.346
  3. ^ Evans p.202
  4. ^ Evans p.203
  5. ^ Evans p.242