1st Edition 1936. 2nd imp wrapper from 1938. A very rare book from Reginald Davis. He wrote three detective novels, The Crowing Hen (1936), Nine Days' Panic (1937) and Twelve Midnight Street (1938) Danes Priory is to be sold to a young couple about to be married but they might be changing their minds when one of the estate agents falls to his death out of a second story window supposedly at the hands (claws?) of The Crowing Hen. Is the house haunted by the 15th century ghost of this horrible creature or is a sinister human behind all the horrors? The Crowing Hen is teeming with Gothic excesses and a macabre set piece. There is even an impossible problem. After the first victim has been placed into a coffin inside the church while awaiting burial, bloody footprints are found on the floor encircling the coffin. And a statue known as "Flat Face" which has a habit of teetering from its pedestal is missing. Somehow all this was done while the church was completely locked, and no one was seen leaving while it was under watch. This rhyme serves as epigraph to this intensely Gothic, very creepy story of a village plagued by fears and superstition and menaced by a ghastly creature with a strange crowing call and claw-like hands they've dubbed The Crowing Hen. Book is very good++ and bright. Contents good. The wrapper is good++ and quite bright. Small loss to spine tip and edges. Edges rubbed and nicked with light creasing. A few small closed tears.