Call The Next Witness by Philip Woodruff - 1948

Guild Books/Jonathan Cape, London, 1948. First Thus. Softcover. Near Fine Condition/Very Good. Guild Books No. 245; published for British Publisher's Guild by Jonathan Cape; Scarce in pictorial dust jacket. "The detection of crime in an Indian village, in the period between the two World Wars, offered a peculiar problem: while it was relatively simple to identify the criminal, it was an extraordinarily difficult task to produce witnesses to testify to his guilt in court. For the intense and conflicting activities of the witnesses concerned laid them open to incalculable pressure. This novel is concerned with the investigation of the death of an Indian girl, Pyari, who had been deceived by her husband, Gopal Singh. Her family and the police worked to convict her husband of murder, and her husband's family wished to establish a verdict of suicide. Their efforts involved Jhammu Nat, the gipsy and smuggler of cocaine; Chabeli Parshad, the Brahman, whose life was made a misery by his shrewish wife; Dost Mohammad, the bus-driver, who had married the mistress of an influential landowner; Jeharan, Pyari's old nurse, whom Gopal's family had turned out of their house; and countless others who, for their own desperate reasons, could not afford to defy threats or refuse bribes. The death of Pyari, tragic in itself, was, in fact, no more than a linking of the complex destinies of countless people on whom her life had never impinged."  First edition of the work in this format. Size: 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. 208 pages. Dust Jacket is fully intact but has wear to bottom & loss to top of spine. Dust Jacket un-clipped. Black titles spine. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 250 grams. Category: Crime Fiction; Fiction; India; 1930s; Crime Fiction. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 2968. . This book is very light, and may be shipped for less than the standard book cost quoted at this site..