The Man In The Dark / John Ferguson

1928 4th US edition

Published by P F Collier & Son, New York

Francis MacNab Detective Series

Scottish author John Ferguson wrote a mystery in 1921, The Dark Geraldine, which featured a Scottish policeman by the name of FRANCIS MacNAB.

And then seven years later, in The Man in the Dark (1928), he resurrected the name for another detective, but this time MacNab was a private detective based in London… who just happens to be the son of the original MacNab.

MacNab solves one complex mystery after another, chock full of surprising twists, oddball situations and intriguing characters, working with—and sometimes against—various other crime solvers: reporters, busybodies and detectives both public and private. The clues are abundant and often surprising, and Ferguson plays fair with the reader. In other words, typically Golden Age fare, full of shooting parties, country houses, visiting vicars and the like. 

Ferguson wrote other mysteries, as well. His standalones include The Grouse Moor Mystery (1934, Mr. Kello (a 1924 fictionalized true crime novel), Night in Glengyle (1933) and Terror on the Island (1942), which was set in Germany.