CHRISTOPHER BUSH – The Case of the Tudor Queen. Ludovc Travers #18. Cassell, UK, hardcover, 1938. Holt, US, hardcover, 1938.  Penguin #849, paperback, 1953. Dean Street Press, trade paperback, 2018. (I believe that Dean Street has reprinted all 63 Travers books in uniform softcover editions.)

   Amateur detective Ludovic Travers and friend Supt. George Wharton of Scotland Yard inadvertently stumble on two dead bodies in the house belonging to one of the dead persons. She is actress Mary Legreye, who recently was applauded as Mary Tudor.

   She and her houseman, Fred Ward, appear to have committed suicide.  Miss Legreye is sitting in a high-backed chair with the furniture cleared away, so that the scene is like one from the play. Both Travers and Wharton are suspicious, and the police surgeon corroborates their view. These are murders. But by whom, and why?

   Miss Legreye is pregnant, the p.m. reveals, but no man can be found who can be named as her paramour. Actors,  manager, and playwright in turn are investigated and found to have alibis. The case is almost given up as hopeless when Travers sees the light. A cast-iron alibi turns out to be faked, very cleverly indeed. When it yields to Travers’ investigation, a cruel, cold-blooded murderer 1s taken.

   Interesting all the way.