John Bingham Books In Order

Publication Order of Brock Books

Publication Order of Kenneth Ducane Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

John Bingham
John Bingham was born in Haywards Heath, Sussex, England on November 3, 1908. John was the son of Arthur Bingham, 6th Baron Clanmorris and Mowbray Leila Cloete.

He was educated at Cheltenham College, and he married Madeleine Mary Ebel, the daughter of Clement Ebel on July 28, 1934. His wife worked for the security services and was a biographer and playwright.

John fought in World War II with the Royal Engineers, and was attached to the General Staff. On June 24, 1960, he succeeded as 7th Baron Clanmorris.

It was during a train ride through the countryside where he overheard this conversation in German between two people in his car. The couple were observing and taking notes on the locations of military installations and potential munitions factories.

John, pretending to also be German, spoke with the couple, obtaining their names and where it was they were staying, and he passed it on to this friend in intelligence. He was quickly recruited by MI5, where he worked with Maxwell Knight, a famed undercover agent, as well as David Cornwell (also known as John le Carre).

During World War II and for two decades following 1950, he worked for MI5, and had long been thought to have been the inspiration for George Smiley, John le Carre’s character. During his 30 years at MI5, he served in various high-ranking capacities, which includes undercover agent.

“The Double Agent” was nominated for a CWA Gold Dagger in 1966.

“Five Roundabouts to Heaven” was adapted into “Married Life”, released in 2007. It was also adapted into “The Tender Poison” episode of “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour”, while “Murder Off the Record” was adapted into the “Captive Audience” episode of the same series. “A Fragment of Fear” was adapted into a 1970 movie called “Fragment of Fear”.

He died at the age of 79 on August 6, 1988.

“Five Roundabouts to Heaven” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1953. Philip Bartels and Peter Harding share a friendship dating back to their childhood. Now Philip is trapped in this disenchanted marriage with Beatrice, his wife, and he meets and falls in love with Lorna Dickson, the charming and graceful.

Philip, overcome by the prospect of a humiliating divorce, makes the choice to poison Beatrice. However when he invites Peter, his best friend, over to meet his mistress he sets this shocking series of events off which will forever change the lives of everybody that is involved.

“The Paton Street Case” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1955. There is a fire at 127 Paton Street, arson is suspected immediately. At first it all appears to be a clear cut case, up until the insurance men discover a corpse in the first floor flat.

Could the two crimes be related? Who left a cigarette end at the scene of the crime? Why are the bespectacled German-Jewish couple that own these premises bristling with defensive hostility?

The list of solutions appears to be endless, however inevitably the widening ripples of crime start pointing all the way back to the case of everything.

“My Name is Michael Sibley” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1952. It is just before World War II breaks out when John Prosset (entrepreneur and childhood friend of Michael Sibley, the hero) is discovered dead in this cottage. His death comes as quite the shock to Michael, who was staying with Prossett just that weekend. It is a shock that becomes even more profound once it emerges that Prossett was apparently murdered.

Michael’s anxiety gets even more guilt ridden once it transpires that far from being friends at school and after, Prossett patronized, despised and bullied Sibley and Sibley, in return, hated his guts deeply.

However Michael (a journalist) was no apparent criminal, despite how vengeful his thoughts may have been, however because of his careless and hamfisted ways, when the cops start their investigations Michael starts making a series of errors which bring him closer to the gallows. The more that Michael continues to protest his innocence and attempts to protect the woman he loves, the more apparent his lies and errors of judgment propel relentlessly towards his fate.

John, besides just creating a gripping and superb thriller novel, redefined the police interview, a revolution that in its time created a literary sensation.

“Murder Off the Record” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1957. To just one woman, he was this handsome young officer that she had loved so deeply, however in vain. But to another, he was an affair of the moment, to just be discarded once the fiery passions dwindled down into ashes.

But to a third, he was this cunning man that held her life in his bloody hands. His name is Leslie George Arnold Braithwaite, the name was a phony one however the horror was just as real as death itself.

“A Fragment of Fear” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1965. James Compton (a novelist and reporter) is on a recuperative trip in Italy after being in a car accident, and witnesses the discovery of this murder victim, a woman that was vacationing in the same hotel. Lucy Dawson appeared to be a gentle old lady, and so the motive for her death just seemed to be an unmeditated assault. However when James returns back to England and makes a benign inquiry into the woman’s background, he gets a note warning him to just leave the past alone. It was clearly typed up on his own typewriter, despite the fact his apartment shows zero signs of a break-in.

James, now unable to resist pursuing this unfinished story, uncovers a more sinister side to Lucy Dawson and this cold-blooded conspiracy that she might have helped perpetrate while she was alive. All of a sudden James finds there is a dangerous net closing in around him. With horrifying invasions of privacy, threatening phone calls, and zero way of even proving to the cops that anybody is responsible but himself.