The House Opposite cover art

The House Opposite

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

$8.99/mo after trial ends. Cancel anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for $25.99

Buy Now for $25.99

About this listen

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the first original novel to feature Ben the Cockney tramp, the unorthodox detective character created by J. Jefferson Farjeon, author of Mystery in White.

Strange things are happening in the untenanted houses of Jowle Street. There are unaccountable creakings and weird knockings on the door of No.29, where a homeless ex-sailor has taken up residence. But even stranger things are happening in the House Opposite, from where a beautiful woman in an evening gown brings Ben a mysterious message; and worse—the offer of a job!

Ben the ‘passing tramp’ was immortalised on film by Alfred Hitchcock in the film Number 17, based on a popular ’twenties stage play and novelisation by journalist-turned-author Joe Jefferson Farjeon. The House Opposite (1931) was the first full-length original novel to feature Ben, a reluctant down-at-heels Cockney sleuth, who went on to feature in six more successful detective thrillers from 1931 to 1952.

©2015 J. Jefferson Farjeon (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Amateur Sleuths Crime Fiction Historical Mystery Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Detective

Critic Reviews

‘Jefferson Farjeon is quite unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures.’ Dorothy L. Sayers

‘There may be contemporary story writers who are equals of Mr Farjeon in the ability to put the reader swiftly and wholly under the spell of the eerie and uncanny – but they have not come within our reading.’ New York World
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.