This SideTrack looks at some aspects of the life and works of Maurice Procter
| Books by Maurice Procter : Titles |
Many titles have been reprinted and are still in print
| Books by Maurice Procter : Details |
This list shows the various publication dates and the number of pages in that edition
Those editions marked LP are large print editions for visually impaired readers
| A Body to Spare | Ref 13-1 |
Published by Hutchinson [1962]
Published by Hutchinson [1972]
ISBN: -09-111150-1
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
There was an extra body in the morgue – a body stripped of all identification and with its face badly battered. That was, however, just the beginning ...
| The Bowstring Murders | Ref 13-34 |
Published in Collier's November 1st 1952
| The Chief Inspector's Statement | Ref 13-2 |
Published in 1951
Published in 1966
Published by Long [1976]
ISBN: -09-123250-3
Published in 1998
Published in 2001
ISBN: -75-408589-9
The first book about Chief Inspector Hunter.
The story is set in the West Riding village of Pennycross. When the unsolved murder of 6-year-old Daphne Beaumont is followed 8 months later by the murder of 5-year-old Jessie Baker, Hunter and his assistant, Sergeant Dutton, are again sent to investigate. With 2 suspects and no major clues, Hunter establishes a set of observation posts from which the police watch the village. Hunter receives several personal taunts – a cardboard gravestone, poison-pen letters, a scare-crow effigy.
The major part of the novel is narrated by Hunter.
Nice description of the village and its people, and of the investigation. Rather a flat ending and no real explanation of why the villain chose to murder the two little girls. The only surprise is when 20-year-old Barbary Beaumont says that she will marry Hunter.
The book was subtitled Chief Inspector's Statement on Two Brutal Child Murders.
It was published as The Pennycross Murders in the USA
| Death has a Shadow | Ref 13-3 |
Published by Hutchinson / White Lion [1965]
Published in 1974
ISBN: -85-617432-7
Published in the UK as Homicide Blonde
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
| Devil's Due | Ref 13-4 |
Published by Hutchinson [1960]
Published by Ulverscroft [1972]
Before the story starts, £20,000 in new notes has been stolen in a robbery at the Northern Counties Bank. The story begins when two accomplices of Granchester mobster, Dixie Costello, are found shot dead. Inspector Martineau investigates. An anonymous caller tells how the two men were shot by a man whom they had been chasing. The man had been carrying a suitcase, and next morning, an empty suitcase arrives at police headquarters. In the local evening paper, the Found column carries a notice that £10,000 has been found in the street. The story takes us through the seedy world of prize-fighting and organised crime.
| Devil in Moonlight | Ref 13-28 |
Published by White Lion [1962]
Published by White Lion [1973]
ISBN: -85-617412-2
A Chief Inspector McCool story.
A Dutch edition was published as Een Duivel bij Maanlicht
| The Devil was Handsome | Ref 13-5 |
Published by Hutchinson [1961]
Published by Ulverscroft [1979]
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
| The Diamond [Film] | Ref 13-36 |
The film was released under a number of other titles: The Diamond Wizard, Million Dollar Diamond.
Details are given in the entry for Million Dollar Diamond
| The Diamond Wizard [Film] | Ref 13-37 |
The film was released under a number of other titles: The Diamond, Million Dollar Diamond.
Details are given in the entry for Million Dollar Diamond
| The Dog Man | Ref 13-6 |
Published by Hutchinson [1969]
Published by F. A. Thorpe Publishers, Leicester [1972]
ISBN: -09-096980-4
This was the last book to be published
| Each Man's Destiny | Ref 13-7 |
Published by White Lion [1947]
Published by Longmans [1947]
Published in 1973
ISBN: -75-617372-X
| The End of the Street | Ref 13-29 |
Published by Longmans [1949]
| Exercise Hoodwink | Ref 13-8 |
Published by Hutchinson / Popular Library [1967]
Published in 1971
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
When a murderous mobster-king confounds the police again – and again – an ingenious mantrap is set...
| Flucht aus London [TV Film] | Ref 13-38 |
The film was directed by Wolfgang Storch.
The screenplay was by Frank Schaumann.
Others in the cast included:
Helmut Düvelsdorf, Dorothea Kaiser, Joachim Kerzel, Bill Knox, Claus-Dieter Reents
| The Graveyard Rolls | Ref 13-9 |
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
| Hell is a City | Ref 13-10 |
Published in 1954
Published by Hutchinson [1972]
ISBN: -09-111160-9
A thriller set in Granchester in which Inspector Harry Martineau tracks down an escaped prisoner, Dixie Costello, whom he jailed 14 years earlier – in Devil's Due – and who now turns murderer. The inspector has a frigid, nagging wife who resents the time he spends on his work.
Also published as Murder, somewhere in this city and Somewhere in this city in the USA.
The book was adapted by Val Guest who directed the 1959 Associated British-Hammer film version under the same title.
This was his most successful book and, in 1972, Maurice said that it had made him about £1,000
| Hell is a City [Film] | Ref 13-39 |
The film was produced by Michael Carreras
The music for the film was composed and conducted by Stanley Black.
The black and white film was photographed in Hammerscope by Arthur Grant. It was filmed on location in Manchester – where the film adaptation was set – and the interiors were filmed in the Associated British Studios at Elstree.
The film ran for 98 minutes.
It was re-released in 1998.
The cast included:
| Hideaway | Ref 13-11 |
Published by Popular Library / Harper & Row / Hutchinson [1968]
ISBN: -09-089690-4
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
| His Weight in Gold | Ref 13-26 |
Published by Hutchinson [1966]
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
| Homicide Blonde | Ref 13-27 |
Published by Popular Library [1965]
Published in the US as Death has a Shadow
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
| Hurry the Darkness | Ref 13-12 |
Published by White Lion [1952]
Published in 1976
ISBN: -85-617442-4
| I will Speak Daggers | Ref 13-13 |
It was published as The Ripper in the USA
Published in 1957
Published in 1966
Published by White Lion [1973]
ISBN: -85-617382-7
| Killer at Large | Ref 13-14 |
Published by Hutchinson [1959]
Published by J. Long [1976]
ISBN: -09-123240-6
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau in which
... he must find Guy Rainer, the escaped prisoner who had been sent to jail for 7 years for killing his fiancée's lover. What would he do now that he was loose? Police were watching closely in case he tried to contact his frightened fiancée. In the midst of the hunt, a nine-year-old girl, Dessie Kegan, disappears. Has she been murdered? Did Guy take her for reasons of his own? Was there actually any connection with the prison break? Martineau had to work fast – and he knew it
The story of his hunt, written with unusual skill, is gripping and unflagging in its suspense and excitement
| Man in Ambush | Ref 13-15 |
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
Published by Hutchinson [1958]
| The Midnight Plumber | Ref 13-16 |
Published by Black Dagger [1957]
Published in 1996
ISBN: -74-518682-3
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau in which he rounds up a gang of burglars
| Million Dollar Diamond [Film] | Ref 13-35 |
This was the first of his books to be made into a film. In 1972, Maurice said that he thought that it was
a rotten film
The screenplay was by John C. Higgins and Dennis O'Keefe, under the name Jonathan Rix.
The film was produced by Steven Pallos, and directed by Dennis O'Keefe and Montgomery Tully for United Artists.
The film starred
Others in the cast included:
Larry Burns, Dan Cunningham, Alastair Hunter, Gordon McLeod, Hugh Morton, Arthur Mullard, Paul Whitsun-Jones, and Victor Wood
It was the first full-length 3-D film to be made in Britain
The film was released under a number of other titles: The Diamond, The Diamond Wizard.
| Million Dollar Mystery | Ref 13-33 |
| Moonlight Flitting | Ref 13-30 |
Published by Ulverscroft [1971]
| No Place for Magic | Ref 13-17 |
Published as The Policeman and the Lamp in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine of July 1961
| No Proud Chivalry | Ref 13-18 |
Published by Longmans Green [1946]
Published in 1972
This was the first book to be published and – according to a 1972 review in Police, the Journal of the Police Federation – still ranks as one of the finest police stories ever written.
It took a critical look at the police force.
The book caused a stir at Halifax police headquarters, and there were rumours of a libel action because of the book and some of his former colleagues imagined that Procter had based his characters on them
| Out for Christmas | Ref 13-32 |
It was reprinted in 1977 under the title of ??
| The Pennycross Murders | Ref 13-19 |
| The Policeman & the Lamp | Ref 13-31 |
The title of No place for magic when it was published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in July 1961
| The Pub Crawler | Ref 13-20 |
This is listed as one of the 50 Classics of Crime Fiction 1950-1975
Published by Hutchinson [1956]
Published by I Henry [1980]
ISBN: -86-025163-2
Published in 1983
| Rich is the Treasure | Ref 13-21 |
Published by Hutchinson [1952]
This was the first of his books to be made into a film, and appeared under a number of titles: The Diamond, The Diamond Wizard, Million Dollar Diamond
| The Ripper | Ref 13-T1 |
| Rogue Running | Ref 13-22 |
Published by Hutchinson [1967]
Published by White Lion [1974]
ISBN: -85-617402-5
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
| Somewhere in This City | Ref 13-S1 |
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau in which he leads the hunt for a brutal killer
| The Spearhead Death | Ref 13-23 |
Published by Hutchinson / Chivers [1960]
Published in 2003
ISBN: -75-408637-2
| Three at the Angel | Ref 13-24 |
Published by Hutchinson / Popular Library [1958]
| Two Men in Twenty | Ref 13-25 |
Published by White Lion [1964]
Published by White Lion [1974]
ISBN: -85-617422-X
A story featuring Detective Chief Inspector Henry Martineau
In 1981, there was a German TV version of the novel under the title Flucht aus London
Page Ref: MMP186
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