Returning to print for the first time in almost 80 years, told through the letters of Detective Alan Hope, Death on the Downbeat is an innovative addition to the highly acclaimed British Library Crime Classics series.

First published in 1941, Death on the Downbeat restores an unusual and skillfully told lost gem of the mystery genre.

During a performance of Strauss' tone poem 'A Hero's Life', the obnoxious conductor Sir Noel Grampian is shot dead in full view of the Maningpool Municipal Orchestra. He had many enemies, musicians and music critics among them, but to be killed in mid flow suggests an act of the coldest calculation.

Told through the letters of Detective Inspector Alan Hope to his wife as he puzzles over his findings, and other documents such as the letters of members of the orchestra and musical notation holding clues to the crime, this story brings an innovative and refreshing structure to the classic mystery.