An avid reader, Stephen's knowledge of Crime Fiction is fairly extensive, with The Golden Age is his greatest interest.
For those new to Mr Sansom's County Guides series, this is as good a place to start, especially if you like quirky, eccentric detective fiction this could be for you. In this fifth book, we follow The People's Professor Mr Swanton Morley as he tours the counties of England in the 1930s for his County Guides series of books. It is on 5 November 1937 that Morley sets out to begin his research of Sussex.
Mr Morley is a mostly self-educated man who has made a name for himself writing publications aimed at self-help and education for the man or woman in the street. Together with his headstrong daughter, Miriam and his assistant, Stephen Sefton they travel around the country (county-by-county), drawing up information for the guides - of which Morley wants published by 1939. While Miriam drives the Lagonda, Sefton takes notes and Morley pontificates on all subjects from behind his typewriter strapped in to the back seats.
During their visits to the counties of Norfolk, Devon, Westmorland and Essex the trio have come across unexplained deaths and murders. Indeed, Sefton the narrator of the journey concludes that in their travels they seem to come across the very worst of humankind. Given this history it is no surprise that when they arrive in Sussex there is a murder to investigate. It is Sefton who finds the body of a missing school-teacher floating in the lido in Lewes.
These are complex and interesting characters brought to us in iridescence by Mr Sansom. Sefton is a returned fighter from the International Brigade who volunteered to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He is often brought back to the horrors of that war by the sights and sounds he comes across. A bright future beckoned when he arrived at Cambridge University, but that future has so far failed to materialize as he left to go to Spain and has since found it difficult to hold down a job.
Sefton does not want to work for Morley but necessity so far has forced him to continue. He has attempted to resign again but Miriam will not hear of it as she needs an ally to help her ward off the American adventuress Molly Harper who has designs on marrying Morley.
Indeed, the scenes are set for a thrilling thrash through the Sussex countryside. The Guide must be researched, the murder solved and Molly thwarted. Can it all be done in around 300 bonfire crackling pages? This is becoming a familiar fascinating favourite keep on down that road Mr Morley!
