Thanks to the readers

You readers are a wonderful lot. I have received much warm praise – and many useful suggestions on how “The Case of the Murdered Don” can be improved in small ways. Quite apart from annoying typos, for which I alone am to blame, several have pointed out to me slight inadequacies. Some, for instance, wondered in what year the story was set. Others wondered when the case of the Bursar would be resolved.

I have taken your various criticism to heart and will improve the text – in a small way – to take into account your questions. Here is an example: To locate the story firmly in time, I will (in a forthcoming reedition) add the following lines to the scene when Tom walks across Rompchester at the very beginning of the book:

Paperboys screamed newspaper headlines against the general noise. “War in Europe? Germany prepares attack against Czechoslovakia,” shouted one boy, and another seemed to answer him, “Can they defend? Czechoslovakia mobilising its troops”.
Tom had grown up surrounded by constant talk about the threat of war. A bloody civil war was raging in Spain. Only a few months ago, in February 1938, a war in Central Europe had become a real possibility. The adults around Tom discussed whether Britain should take up arms to defend the Czechoslovak state, threatened by Hitler, or whether the Czechoslovaks should be asked to make concessions to the Germans. To Tom, war seemed something very exciting.

Of course, the approaching war will play a huge role in Tom’s and Lily’s adventures. But right now, at the beginning, war is still such a remote possibility, and both Tom and Lily are too occupied with other things. But soon enough, in the third volume of the “Walton Detective Society” mysteries, they will for the first time face the reality of the political situation in 1938 Britain. Discovering the wider world and its implications will offer no end of excitement to the two young detectives. And to you as a reader.

But I will take some time until I get there. The second volume, which will be completed this Autumn (I hope!), is still set within the narrow confines of Walton College. Incidentally, the mystery is called “The Case of the Perfect Crime”. Whew, you may wonder, is there such a thing as a perfect crime? Well, some characters in the mystery think – or at least hope – that they can pull off the perfect crime, and they nearly succeed in doing so. If it were not for Tom and Lily.