No. 17 (Heathen Edition)

Joseph Jefferson Farjeon (1883-1955) was an English playwright, screenwriter, and prolific crime and mystery writer known for his keen humor and flashing wit who penned more than 140 novels during his long career. In the No. 17 - first performed as a play in 1925, then published as a novel in 1926, and eternized for the big screen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1932 - Farjeon introduces one of his most beloved characters, the former merchant sailor now down-on-his-luck tramp Ben, who stumbles through fog-bound London and unwittingly into his first rollicking whodunit mishap when he happens upon a dead body in an abandoned house. While attempting to run away, he's reluctantly dragged back into the house by the curious passerby Gilbert Fordyce, who wants to see the corpse for himself - only to find that it has disappeared! Armed with only his humor, the cowardly Ben is unwillingly plunged into a maze of mystery as Fordyce doggedly seeks answers.