The Cask
The Cask is a 1920 detective novel by the Irish-born writer Freeman [Wills Crofts]. His debut novel, it is considered his masterpiece. Long after the author's reputation had declined, this book was still hailed by critics as a cornerstone of the genre Crofts had been working as a railway engineer before writing the novel, but its success launched him as one of the leading writers of the Golden Age of [Detective Fiction]. He later went on to create the character of Inspector French of Scotland Yard who appeared in a long-running series of novels.