author
Henry Wade
1887–1969
A British Golden Age crime writer with a soldier’s eye for discipline and a sharp feel for motive, he is best known for the Inspector Poole mysteries and for clever plots that often bend the classic whodunit in fresh directions.
1 Audiobook
The Duke of York's steps
by Henry Wade
About the author
Writing as Henry Wade, Major Sir Henry Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher was born in 1887 and became one of the notable names in classic British detective fiction. He was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford, and his background also included military service with the Grenadier Guards, experiences that helped give his fiction its steady, observant tone.
He is especially associated with the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and with Inspector John Poole, who appears in several of his best-known novels, beginning with The Duke of York's Steps in 1929. His books are often praised for combining fair-play mystery with a slightly tougher, more realistic view of crime and authority than many of his contemporaries.
Beyond writing, he was also Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, 6th Baronet, and later served as Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire. That unusual mix of public duty, military experience, and crime writing gives his work a distinct flavor: traditional on the surface, but often more worldly and psychologically alert than readers might expect.