CS Foresters lost crime novel found at auction to be published.

Hornblower author's 1935 novel The Pursued disappeared until found at auction in 2002.

Finally, it is hitting the bookshops.

A crime novel by CS Forester, written during the period 70 years ago when he created the naval hero Horatio Hornblower and wrote The African Queen, is to be published for the first time.

The Pursued, which until recently was thought to have been lost, is a dark, gritty thriller about a woman who pursues resolutely the man who murdered her daughter. Like Forester's other works, it reveals his supreme skill as a page-turning storyteller.

The novel, which is complete and polished from start to finish, was accepted for publication in 1935 by his publisher, Michael Joseph, now part of Penguin. However, Forester and his publisher delayed its release, deciding that it would not be sensible to publish it between two Hornblower books. Forester then moved house and when his publisher was sold, The Pursued somehow disappeared.

Forester clearly felt its loss. Decades later in his autobiography he wrote: "The lost novel was really lost. It is just possible that a typescript still exists, forgotten and gathering dust in a rarely used storeroom in Boston or Bloomsbury."

He was right. It surfaced at Christie's in 2002, when Lawrence Brewer, a lifelong Forester aficionado, was astonished to find that the auctioneer was selling it as a "job lot" of 11 Forester-related items. "It was a pathetic little auction," said Brewer. "There was no … great publicity. Something should have been made of it."

Excited by the chance to own words by Forester that no one had read, Brewer bought the typescript with Colin Blogg, a fellow founder-member of the CS Forester Society, for just £1,500. "Goodness me!" Brewer exclaimed in pure Foresterese. "I found it. I was sky-high."

Brewer said his love of Forester began when he was eight. "I went to Oxford [University] and read all sorts of exciting literature. I always felt that …[in] the English language, CS Forester had it. There's not a word too many, not a word too few. Magnificent."

Once he realised the lost novel's quality, he knew he must share it by getting it published. However, he discovered that the copyright lay with Forester's estate. He recalled: "We might own the paper, but we didn't own the words. It took over six years to negotiate through that."

Negotiations with Forester's estate, represented by the literary agents Peters Fraser & Dunlop, have now led to the novel's publication by Penguin Modern Classics on 3 November.

It was as a crime writer that Forester made his name. Two earlier novels – Payment Deferred in 1926 (a psychological thriller filmed with Charles Laughton in the leading role) and Plain Murder from 1930 – were highly successful in their day. Penguin plans to reissue simultaneously the two earlier novels, which have been out of print for about 40 years.

Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (1899-1966), who studied medicine at Guy's Hospital and, after leaving without a degree, turned to writing. He became a household name with his 11-book Hornblower series about a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic wars, which began with The Happy Return in 1937. Such is the character's appeal that the books are read worldwide. The Forester Society now has a German chairman, a Dutch secretary and, despite the novels' anti-French jingoism, a French membership secretary. "That's the way the world ought to be," said Brewer.

Penguin is excited by the new discovery. Adam Freudenheim, publisher of Penguin Classics, described the novel as "a dark, twisted tale of murder, lust and retribution".

He added: "It is a novel years ahead of its time, rewriting the traditions of crime fiction to create a gripping psychological portrayal of obsession, jealousy, torment and the grim underside of suburban London life."

Penguin has so far shown the novel to a handful of readers, including the novelist Sarah Waters, who said: "Forester has a great eye for grubby domestic detail, and a subtle understanding of the dangerous passions lurking just beneath the surface of everyday life. A riveting read."

Both the publisher and Brewer believe that it will appeal both to fans of Forester and crime novels, as well as those interested in social history. The novel's portrayal of the suburbs of 1930s London underlines how much they have since changed.

Precisely where the typescript of The Pursued had been until 2002 is unknown. Christie's has not revealed the identity of the vendor.

Dalya Alberge

The Observer,