From the dust jacket of the first edition of Case for Sergeant Beef by Leo Bruce, published by Ivor Nicholson & Watson (London, 1947):
In the cleverly plotted Case for Sergeant Beef, Mr. Wellington Chickle, a retired watchmaker, plans the perfect murder, but he chooses the wrong victim. The dead man’s sister refuses to accept the idea that her brother committed suicide and calls in the unprepossessing Sgt. Beef who unravels the plot with the aid of the local police. Meanwhile, Townsend, Beef’s indefatigable chronicler, comes to a completely different—and completely wrong—conclusion. A delightful read by one of the best mystery plotters who ever lived.
From the inside front cover of the first Penguin edition of Case for Sergeant Beef by Leo Bruce, published by Penguin Books (London, 1951):
Sergeant Beef was a burly, red-faced, complacent ex-village-policeman with a huge dark ginger moustache. He inspired very little confidence—in fact he himself was one of the few people who believed in his genius—but, in his own blunt and logical way, he was a remarkable efficient detective. As a private investigator he joined forces with the police over the difficult Shoulter murder case, and faced problems which, he insisted, would have been far too formidable for the smart amateurs of detective fiction, such as M. Amer Picon and Lord Simon Plimsoll. For Case for Sergeant Beef, while full of its own excitements and complications, enjoys a number of friendly and lightly veiled digs at the plots and characters of other famous writers.
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