The 12.30 from Croydon (U.S. title: Wilful and Premeditated) is a detective novel by Freeman Wills Crofts first published in 1934. It is about a murder which is committed during a flight over the English Channel. The identity of the killer is revealed quite early in the book, and the reader can watch the preparations for the crime and how the murderer tries to cover up their tracks. The final chapters of the novel are set in a courtroom and during a private function at a hotel, where a resumé of the whole case is given in front of a small group of police detectives, solicitors, and barristers. Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction that centres upon the investigation of a crime, usually murder, by a detective, either professional or amateur. ... Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957) was born in Dublin, Ireland. ... See also: 1933 in literature, other events of 1934, 1935 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The English Channel ( French:La Manche) is the part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. ... A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about law, crime, punishment or the legal profession. ... Hotel is the letter H in the NATO phonetic alphabet. ... In the United Kingdom and countries having a similar legal system the legal profession is divided into two kinds of lawyers: the solicitors who contact and advise clients, and barristers who argue cases in court. ... British barristers wearing traditional dress. ...

Set in Yorkshire and London in 1933, The 12.30 from Croydon is about 35 year-old Charles Swinburn, the owner of a factory in Cold Pickerby, Yorkshire, in which electric motors are produced. Swinburn has inherited the works from his father and uncle. While the former has been dead for many years, Andrew Crowther, his uncle, leads a retired life in the same town. At 65, his health has recently started to deteriorate. In particular, Crowther is suffering from indigestion. This article is about the English county. ... Greater London and the Regions of England. ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Electric motors of various sizes. ... Indigestion is a condition that is frequently caused by eating too fast, especially by eating high-fat foods quickly. ...

Swinburn's business is hit by the Great Depression just like any other company, but when he asks his uncle for a loan to be able to avoid bankruptcy he is appalled to find that the old man, obviously no longer able to understand trends in the world economy, is unwilling to grant him a substantial sum to overcome his financial difficulties. Swinburn knows that he and his cousin Elsie will each inherit half of Crowther's fortune, so he does not see why he cannot have some of the money a bit earlier—"an advance on his legacy". At this point the first thoughts that it might be feasible to kill his uncle without being found out occur to Swinburn. --209. ... Bankruptcy - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

His unrequited love for a young woman called Una Mellor helps him come to a quick decision. "It seems a beastly thing to say", she tells him, Unrequited love is love is that is not reciprocated, even though reciprocation is desired. ...

After thinking the matter over again and again, Swinburne resolves to poison his uncle with potassium cyanide. He takes all kinds of precautions when he buys the poison. Then he makes a pill that looks like one of Crowther's anti-indigestion tablets. He buys a bottle of those pills, buries the poisoned pill in that bottle, and, over dinner at his uncle's, spills a glass of wine which gives him the opportunity to exchange bottles without anyone noticing. Potassium cyanide is the salt of potassium and hydrogen cyanide, a colorless compound with smell of almonds, similar in appearance to sugar and highly soluble in water. ... For other meanings please see Tablet (disambiguation) Common disk-shaped pills A pharmacological tablet is a medicinal or other active substance mixed with binder powders and pressed into a tablet form. ...

Charles Swinburn is particularly proud of his perfect alibi. On the following morning he books a three-week cruise of the Mediterranean. When he is informed of his uncle's death, he is in Naples, Italy. To his surprise, his uncle took the pill not at home but on his first (and last) flight, the 12.30 from Croydon: The family had been alarmed by a report stating that Elsie had had an accident in France, and Crowther had insisted on coming with Elsie's father and their daughter. On arrival in France he had been found dead. Cruising means different things to different cruisers, but all cruising shares the following characteristics: living on the boat, traveling, extended periods of time (more than a week or two). ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... Alternate uses: See Naples (disambiguation) Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Napule, from Greek Νέα-Πόλις, latinised in Neapolis) is the largest town in southern Italy, capital of Campania region. ... The Italian Republic or Italy (Italian: Repubblica Italiana or Italia) is a country in southern Europe. ... Croydon Airport is in south London on the borders of the London Boroughs of Croydon and Sutton. ... The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ...

An inquest is held, but Swinburn feels quite safe when no one seems to implicate him in the case. However, some time later he is approached by Weatherup, Crowther's butler, who claims he has seen him exchange the bottles, and who starts blackmailing him. Again, Swinburn sees no other solution than to "take that desperate remedy" and kill the butler. This time he cannot be as subtle as when planning his uncle's death. He brutally slays Weatherup with a piece of lead pipe and dumps his body in a nearby lake. An inquest is a formal process of state investigation. ... For other uses, see Blackmail (disambiguation). ...

Soon afterwards he is arrested, tried, and hanged. The jury trial (not to be confused with grand jury proceedings or trial by jury) is a bench trial wherein the Judge uses a jury to advise him on the facts while he determines the law. ... Hanging to Music. ...

One of the interesting aspects of the novel is the insight the reader gains into the workings of a criminal mind. In particular, Swinburn's rationalization along utilitarian argumentative patterns must be mentioned in this context: In psychology, rationalization is the process of constructing a logical justification for a decision that was originally arrived at through a different mental process. ... Utilitarianism is a theory of ethics based on quantitative maximisation of happiness for society or humanity. ...

Crofts's Detective-Inspector Joseph French, who appears in several of his novels, keeps in the background during the action of The 12.30 from Croydon. He does solve the case, and explains how he did it in the final chapters of the novel, but the emphasis of the book is on the thoughts and deeds of the criminal.

Read on

• Agatha Christie's Death in the Clouds (1935) is a whodunnit in which a murder is committed on a flight from Le Bourget to Croydon, with Poirot on board.
• Francis Iles's Malice Aforethought (1931) is seen by many as the first, and better, experiment in psychological suspense fiction, with The 12.30 from Croydon just a pale imitation of Iles's novel.
• Patricia Highsmith's This Sweet Sickness (1961) follows on his way to self-destruction a young murderer who is also driven by the prospect of gaining a beautiful lady in the end.
• The protagonist of Simon Brett's A Shock to the System (1984) is also a killer who is deluded into thinking that he can get away with murder.