Book description
The Hon. Vernon Lethaby is a flamboyant, headline-seeking exhibitionist
with extravagant tastes and an allowance that barely covers his racing
debts. In an unlikely partnership with middle-aged Canadian adventurer
Joe 'Digger' Henderson, he strikes out for the Highlands of Scotland to
hunt for Prince Charlie's treasure, which, according to legend, is
interred on the isle of Erran.
But Lathaby doesn't trust his partner, and has taken out insurance to
cover him against being swindled. Enter Miles Bredon, who is sent by his
employer to ensure than neither of them defrauds the Indescribable
Insurance Company.
An unidentified body burned in a garage, maps, photographs and a
missing key sustain this clever tale of financial skulduggery until the
final pages. It was Ronald Knox, who, as a pioneer of Golden Age
detective fiction, codified the rules of the genre in his 'Ten
Commandments of Detection', which stipulated, among other rules, that
'No Chinaman must figure in the story', and 'Not more than one secret
room or passage is allowable'. He was a Sherlock Holmes aficionado,
writing a satirical essay that was read by Arthur Conan Doyle himself,
and is credited with creating the notion of 'Sherlockian studies', which
treats Sherlock Holmes as a real-life character. Educated at Eton and
Oxford, Knox was ordained as priest in the Church of England but later
entered the Roman Catholic Church. He completed the first Roman Catholic
translation of the Bible into English for more than 350 years, and wrote
detective stories in order to supplement the modest stipend of his
Oxford Chaplaincy.
