The Naked Villainy
(1958)(The second book in the Ambrose Usher Mystery series)
A novel by Jocelyn Davey
Entertaining mystery. A 1937 escapade of Ambrose Usher (who had become an Oxford Don in A Offense, 1956) involves the search for missing musical manuscripts, the murder of a mystical scholar, the protection of industrial plans for England, the theft of an order of monkeys. Inspector Hallibut is a good sounding board for Usher's quiver of quotations and relevant frames of reference, and the whole is pundit pondering for the quite-a-bit-above-average reader.
Used availability for Jocelyn Davey's The Naked Villainy