Case of the perfect crime preview

People keep pestering me with the question when the next book in the series appears. After some delay, I am now certain that I can promise the next book for the end of 2017. So that’s something to look forward to, I hope. Perhaps you might want to set aside some time for reading at the beginning of 2018? I’d much appreciate that.

Oh, drat. I haven’t told you yet what the next book is called, have I. The title is “The Case of the Perfect Crime”. It’s a curious title, I admit. You might wonder how Tom and Lily, who are far from being the expert detectives (yet?), will solve a perfect crime. You might also wonder whether there is something like a perfect crime. So little in this world is perfect, so how could a crime be possibly perfect?

Here is my simple answer: A crime is perfect if in spite of every possible effort the police or by all the detectives in the world the culprit cannot be found. Or if the culprit is discovered, to prove that he or she is truly guilty. In real life, I’m afraid, this happens more often than not. Life is such a muddle, and finding true and damning proof against a felon is very hard. Most evidence in court cases is circumstantial, meaning that we must rely on assumptions and probability. So crime can turn out to be perfect because the world is so imperfect.

This is very much what happens in “The Case of the Perfect Crime”. But Tom and Lily never give up. And they find a way to undermine a felon’s seemingly perfect position. They blow him out of his dugout, so to speak. Blow him out of a dugout? That suggests a bomb. And yes, there is a bomb, in fact, more than one.

Now if this hasn’t made you curious to find out more, I don’t know what else will. Do let me know, though. I always appreciate your thoughts.