The poet Richard Cadogan persuades his published to advance fifty pounds to enable him to take a holiday in Oxford, "city of dream-spires, cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmed (to the point of distraction), charmed with larks, racked with rooks, and rounded with rivers". After a prolonged railway journey, and being left stranded at Didcot Station, he eventually arrives in Oxford by hitching a lift and on foot. On walking into the city after midnight he sees a shop with its awning still down. On trying the door of this toyshop he finds it unlocked and ventures inside. Here he finds the body of an elderly woman. But he is not alone and is knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant. The next morning, when he comes round, he manages to escape and raise the alarm. However, the toy shop is now a grocery shop and, of course, there is no body.
This is when Richard Cadogan calls upon his old friend, Gervase Fen. They set off to investigate, starting at the (grocery) shop. A slip of paper with a number written on it leads them to a solicitor who is candid, open and informative, which immediately raises Fen's suspicions. The case seems to hinge on an eccentric old lady who was run over by a bus and had made some strange provisions in her will. All they need to do now is find a beautiful shop-girl with blue eyes and a small spotted dog!
Page created 16 November 2002 and last
updated 19 April 2008