The Clifford Affair — A.E. Fielding

The Clifford Affair, first published in 1927, is a classic British 'golden-age' murder mystery. The book, authored by A. E. Fielding (whose real identity remains itself somewhat of a mystery), features Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Pointer, who is called to the Heath Mansions building in Hampstead upon the discovery of a headless corpse in one of the apartments. As initial evidence points to the deceased being a notorious anarchist from Spain's Basque region, Pointer finds himself fighting for control of the case with an investigator from the Foreign Office. However, Pointer believes the corpse belongs to someone else, but must determine who, and also why the body was dismembered in such a gruesome fashion, and the identity of the killer.