The Three Taps

The Three Taps The Merion Press is pleased to bring you yet another wonderful out-of-print masterpiece of detective fiction. The Three Taps (1927). It is the second detective novel by Ronald A. Knox, the author of the Viaduct Murder (1925). which is also published by The Merion Press.           The Three Taps features Miles Bredon as the detective, who appears in the next four and final novels by Father Knox. Bredon is very unassuming and tries not to get involved, but just can’t help solving the murder (with considerable help from his wife, Angela). Brendon is employed by the insurance company, which issued a “Euthanasia” policy to Mr. Mottram, under which, if the insured dies before age 65, the proceeds are paid to his beneficiary, however, if he survives, then he gets regular annuity payments. Mottram dies under curious circumstances and Bredon has to figure out whether it was suicide or murder.           Father Knox rewards us with another highly entertaining, thoroughly satisfying, classic British mystery story.

Born in Leicestershire, England, on February 17, 1888, to an Anglican family, Ronald (Arbuthnott) Knox was a fascinating person. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he was appointed chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1912 and converted to Catholicism in 1917. At the same time that he served as Roman Catholic chaplain of Oxford University (1926-1939) and as domestic prelate to the Pope (1936), he wrote classic detective stories.

According to his niece, Penelope Fitzgerald, a fine author in her own right, Msgr. Knox was probably the best known Roman Catholic Bishop of his day. He singlehandedly translated the St. Jerome Latin Vulgate Bible into English. His works on religious themes include: Some Loose Stones (1913), Reunion All Round (1914), The Spiritual Aeneid (1918), The Belief of Catholics (1927), Caliban in Grub Street (1930), Heaven and Charing Cross (1935), Let Dons Delight (1939), and Captive Flames (1940).

Msgr. Knox’s Roman Catholicism caused his father to cut him out of his will. This did not make much difference, however, as Knox earned a good income from his detective novels. His mystery stories include: The Viaduct Murder (1925), The Body in the Silo (1933), and Still Dead (1934).