Arthur Gask 
The Judgement of Larose 

Dearest Mum and Dad, —I know you will have been anxious to hear from me and wondering why I haven’t written at once, but, as you can well guess, things have been dreadfully upset here, and really, I don’t seem to have had a moment to spare.

These last three days have been a perfect nightmare for everyone. The place has been full of policemen and detectives, and now, to cap all, we hear that the terrible Gilbert Larose is coming, and that always means, so Mr. Slim says, a hanging for someone. Mr. Slim—he is the butler here—calls Gilbert Larose the ‘Angel of Death, ‘ and says he is the greatest detective in all the world, and that once he is on the spot they will find the murderer at once.

Of course, you read in the newspapers that I was the first to find the body, and I shall never forget it.