Born in Ireland, DOUGLAS RUTHERFORD grew up there during the Troubles. From Jedbergh School, he went to Claire College, Cambridge. During the war he served in Intelligence North Africa, where he caught some spies and was mentioned in dispatches. He returned to England to teach at a famous boys' public school, where he is now headmaster. On vacations Douglas Rugherford travels and writes thrillers, and while on a sabbatical on the Continent he studied ol masters of painting and new masters of motor racing. (1977)s

Douglas Rutherford

Mystery Tour

Jacket Notes: who assembled at Gatwick Airport was as diverse as their pretty courier had come to expect. But when, after a four hours' delay, Flight 327 finally took off for a round of civic and scenic beauties, one of the passengers was missing and the remainder were accompanied by an unseen, unknown additional traveller whose presence was to be felt more than once during the week-long trip to Venice, Padua, Verona, Milan and the Italian Lakes. The unlisted passenger was Death.

Beginning with the violent drama of an arrest and escape at Gatwick, Douglas Rutherford portrays the tension which builds up among a group of holiday-makers as they come to realize that the disasters which attend their tour are not haphazard. Someone in the group is bent on murder. And only the killer knows whether the victims are struck down at random, or whether a terrifying selectivity is at work.
(© The Crime Club)