Frank Froest

Superintendent Frank Castle Froëst was a British detective and crime writer who was described by a journalist as being "...short, thick-set, full-faced, Mr. Froëst in uniform looked more like a Prussian field-marshal than anything else. Out of uniform he was always immaculate in silk hat, patent leather boots, and carrying a carefully rolled umbrella." Called 'the man with iron hands', Froest was incredibly strong, and could tear a pack of cards in half and snap a sixpence 'like a biscuit'.

On his retirement, he was awarded an MVO and moved to Weston-Super-Mare and became a magistrate and member of Somerset County Council. Frank Froëst, the highly decorated Superintendent of Scotland Yard’s C.I.D., began his retirement from the Metropolitan Police by writing The Grell Mystery, acclaimed as the first crime novel to incorporate authentic police procedures. With George Dilnot, co-author of the story collection The Crime Club, Froëst wrote one more novel, the ambitious and thrilling The Rogues’ Syndicate, published in 1916 and also released as a silent movie, Millionaire Hallet’s Adventure. The book was republished in April 1930 by the Detective Story Club, but was inadvertently sourced from an abridged, Americanised version called The Maelstrom.

He died in Weston-Super-Mare, aged 73. 

Two of his novels, The Grell Mystery and The Maelstrom, were made into films in 1917.