the case of a Russian man who had accused his young niece of murdering her mother, and had attempted blackmail. Mason had said to himself: "Suppose that after all the accusation was true, but the blackmailing uncle [...] didn't know that it was true!" Mason had learned of the properties of Strophanthus Hispidus from W. E. Dixon, a professor of medicine with whom he had served as a Secret Service agent in the Mediterranean in 1915. On seeking further information he received the treatise on the poison with its diagrams, "and with it the poison-arrow with the reddish clay in which the poison is mixed still clinging to the barb." One of Mason's difficulties in framing the story had resolved itself as he was sitting outside smoking a pipe one night after working late. Looking back into the house through the french windows he saw that the hands of the clock pointed to half-past ten, which was quite wrong. He then realised that the clock was invisible from where he sat, and that he was looking into a mirror. Critical reception Writing in 1952, Mason's biographer Roger Lancelyn Green praised the book as "a detective novel perfect in every detail", in which Hanaud emerged "ready to take his place among the great detectives". In A Catalogue of Crime (1989) Barzun and Taylor called the novel a "milepost in detective fiction". They praised the book for its romance, melodrama, good characterisation and humour, but suggested that these things could not compensate for Hanaud's failure to play fair with his Watson [Frobisher]. Adaptations At the request of the theatre manager and actor Arthur Bouchier the novel was adapted for the stage in 1926 by Mason himself. It has also been adapted for the screen four times: La Maison de la Fléche (France) (1930) The House of the Arrow (UK) (1930) The House of the Arrow (UK) (1940) The House of the Arrow (UK) (1953) References Bibliography External links Text of The House of the Arrow at Gutenberg Australia 1924 British novels British mystery novels British detective novels Novels by A. E. W. Mason British novels adapted into films Novels set in France Hodder & Stoughton books