The Footsteps at the Lock

These are the factors leading to their decision to share a summer canoe holiday on the Thames, in spite of their animosity. As they are on the return leg of their excursion, Nigel needs to return to Oxford to complete his examinations, leaving Derek at Shipcote Lock. In Nigel’s absence, Derek disappears—as it happens, just before his twenty-fifth birthday. Given his self-destructive life-style, his creditors had insured his life. So Miles Bredon, private detective of the Indescribable Insurance Company, is called in to investigate.

Bredon is once again accompanied by his clever wife, Angela, and joined as well by the official police investigator, his wartime friend Detective Leyland. The Footsteps at the Lock contains all the hallmarks of Ronald Knox’s detective fiction: polished prose, compelling characterization, and a pleasingly puzzling plot.

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