Introduction Biography Addresses Portraits
Books Short stories Stage plays Film and TV Radio and audio
Quotations Settings Dedications Canning in the OED Reading lists Articles on Canning
Centenary News Links Availability

Quarrel at Sea

Short Story (1,315 words)

Harold Milton's body has been found by his brother Rufus Milton, lying in his seaside cottage. There are signs of a break-in and a fight. Death occurred three days earlier, and there are two days' worth of newspapers lying on the porch. Brother Rufus has been out sailing alone for three days, and claims he returned to find the cottage in this state. He admits that he has had a quarrel with his brother, who would normally have come with him, but asserts that he left him alive and well. Can his alibi be broken?

Evening Standard, 26 July 1956.
Reprinted in Glasgow Evening Citizen, 2nd August 1956, and in Cyanide in the Sun, ed. Martin Edwards, British Library Crime Classics, 2025.
Included in the now withdrawn collection Crime and Detection, ed. John Higgins, 2016, Lulu.com.