Malice Aforethought The Story of a Commonplace Crime

"Possibly the best shocker ever written." — The English ReviewDr. Edmund Bickleigh married above his station. Although popular and well respected in his little Devonshire community, he seethes with resentment at the superior social status of his domineering wife, Julia. Bickleigh soothes his inferiority complex by seducing as many of the local women as he possibly can — but with the collapse of his latest fling and a fresh dose of sneering contempt from Julia, the doctor resolves to silence his wife forever and begins plotting the perfect murder.
With Malice Aforethought, Francis Iles produced not just a darkly comic narrative of psychological suspense but also a landmark in crime fiction: for the first time, the murderer's identity was revealed at the start of the tale. Hailed as a tour de force by the British press of its day, the book retains its shock value and stands at #16 in the Crime Writers' Association ranking of the Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.

Author Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893–1971) employed two pseudonyms: as Francis Iles he was a master of psychological suspense; as Anthony Berkeley, he was a luminary of the golden age of crime and detective novels. His 1932 novel Before the Fact was adapted into the classic 1941 film Suspicion, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine.