{"product_id":"2940158556821","title":"The Cask","description":"Freeman Wills Crofts was an Irish mystery author of detective stories during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. At the age of 17 he apprenticed as an engineer and then started working as an engineer. In 1919, however, he was absent from work due to a long illness and, during his absence, he wrote his first book, a mystery story that established him as a master of the genre. In 1929 he abandoned his career as an engineer and continued to write, producing many other books, almost one a year for a period of thirty years, in addition to short stories and plays.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlthough Crofts is best remembered for his character Inspector Joseph French (who he introduced in his fifth book), his first book, \"The Cask\", remains one of his most important works. It was hugely popular at the time and is considered by many critics as one of the best and most important mystery books of all time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a story that codified the \"police procedural,\" the book follows the work of Inspector Burnley, a methodical detective of Scotland Yard, as he investigates the case of a cask that, arriving on the London docks, slips and cracks revealing contents that point to murder.","brand":"Book Revivals Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47158015787248,"sku":"2940158556821","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940158556821_p0.jpg?v=1764118912","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940158556821","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}