Sky High (28 page)
Fortunately the weather remained perfect.
The Vicar fussed round, getting in everyone’s way, torn between horror at the mounting problem of accommodation and gratification at the probable size of the collection.
At two-thirty the choir squeezed their way through the extra benches in the transept and took their places.
The only perfectly composed people were Florimond himself – after some preliminary difficulty over cassocks it had been discovered that by fortunate chance, he and Liz were exactly the same size – and Rupert.
Rupert fingered from time to time a piece of paper in the breast pocket of his flannel jacket. It was the prospectus of St. Oswald’s school for boys. He had no need to look at it, for he had most of it by heart. ‘A fully equipped gymnasium with a whole time physical training instructor,’ who also ‘instructed in small-bore shooting on the 25 and 50 yard ranges.’ Rupert had paced out twenty-five yards in Liz’s garden that morning. He reckoned that if he could hit a moving cat at that range a stationary target should be easy meat. ‘Rugby football is played in both winter terms.’
Both
winter terms. If he went in January that meant he could start right in.
‘We will commence,’ said the Reverend Hallibone, ‘with a prayer of thankfulness for the harvest.’
A strange harvest, he could not help reflecting as he glanced at the row upon row of the packed and fashionable audience. Well, never mind. Was there not a saying about spoiling the Egyptians?
‘Come, ye thankful people, come.’
They were well together, thought Liz. The presence of Florimond and the pressure of the crowd were combining to raise them above themselves. It was going to be all right. It was going to be terrific. It was going to be a triumph. How Mrs. Um was going to hate her. How satisfactory everything was.
Rupert and Maurice and the other children. Tim and Sue. Lucy Mallory. Big Jim Hedges. Florimond himself, his face composed to a look of highly artificial piety.
‘All is safely gathered in—’ Roll on winter.
All Series titles can be read in order, or randomly as standalone novels
Inspector Hazlerigg
- Close Quarters
(1947) - They Never Looked Inside
(alt: He Didn’t Mind Danger) (1948) - The Doors Open
(1949) - Smallbone Deceased
(1950) - Death has Deep Roots
(1951) - Fear To Tread
(in part) (1953) - The Young Petrella
(included) (short stories)(1988) - The Man Who Hated Banks and Other Mysteries
(included) (short stories) (1997)
Patrick Petrella
- Blood and Judgement
(1959) - Amateur in Violence
(included) (short stories) (1973) - Petrella at Q
(short stories) (1977) - The Young Petrella
(short stories) (1988) - Roller Coaster
(1993) - The Man Who Hated Banks and Other Mysteries
(included) (short stories) (1997)
Luke Pagan
- Ring of Terror
(1995) - Into Battle
(1997) - Over and Out
(1998)
Calder & Behrens
- Game Without Rules
(short stories) (1967) - Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens
(short stories) (1982)
Non-Series
- Death in Captivity
(alt: The Danger Within) (1952) - Sky High
(alt: The Country House Burglar) (1955) - Be Shot for Sixpence
(1956) - After the Fine Weather
(1963) - The Crack in the Teacup
(1966) - The Dust and the Heat
(alt: Overdrive) (1967) - The Etruscan Net
(alt: The Family Tomb) (1969) - Stay of Execution and Other Stories
(short stories) (1971) - The Body of a Girl
(1972) - The Ninety-Second Tiger
(1973) - Flash Point
(1974) - The Night of the Twelfth
(1976) - The Empty House
(1979) - The Killing of Katie Steelstock
(alt: Death of a Favourite Girl) (1980) - The Final Throw
(alt: End Game) (1982) - The Black Seraphim
(1984) - The Long Journey Home
(1985) - Trouble
(1987) - Paint, Gold, and Blood
(1989) - Anything for a Quiet Life
(short stories) (1990) - The Queen against Karl Mullen
(1992)
Published by House of Stratus
 | After The Fine Weather When Laura Hart travels to Austria to visit her brother, vice-consul of Lienz in the Tyrol, she briefly meets an American who warns her of the mounting political tension. Neo-Nazis are stirring trouble in the province, and xenophobia is rife between the Austrians who control the area and the Italian locals. Then Laura experiences the troubles first-hand, a shocking incident that suggests Hofrat Humbold, leader of the Lienz government is using some heavy-handed tactics. Somewhat unsurprisingly, he is unwilling to let one little English girl destroy his plans for the largest Nazi move since the war, and Laura makes a dangerous enemy. |
 | Anything For A Quiet Life Jonas Pickett, lawyer and commissioner of oaths is nearing retirement, but still has lots of energy. However, he leaves the pressure of a London practice behind to set up a new modest office in a quiet seaside resort. He soon finds that he is overwhelmed with clients and some of them involve him in very odd and sometimes dangerous cases. This collection of inter-linked stories tells how these are brought to a conclusion; ranging from an incredible courtroom drama involving a gipsy queen to terrorist thugs who make their demands at gunpoint. |
 | Be Shot For Sixpence A gripping spy thriller with a deserved reputation. Philip sees an announcement in The Times from an old school friend who has instructed the newspaper to publish only if they don’t hear from him. This sets a trail running through Europe, with much of the action taking place on the Austro-Hungarian border. The Kremlin, defectors, agitators and the People’s Court set the background to a very realistic story that could well have happened … |
 | The Black Seraphim James Scotland, a young pathologist, decides on a quiet holiday in Melchester, but amid the cathedral town’s quiet medieval atmosphere, he finds a hornet’s nest of church politics, town and country rivalries, and murder. He is called upon to investigate and finds that some very curious alliances between the church, state and business exist. With modern forensic pathology he unravels the unvarnished truth about Melchester, but not before a spot of unexpected romance intervenes. |
 | Blood & Judgement When the wife of a recently escaped prisoner is found murdered and partially buried near a reservoir, Patrick Petrella, a Metropolitan Police Inspector, is called in. Suspicion falls on the escaped convict, but what could have been his motive? Petrella meets resistance from top detectives at the Yard who would prefer to keep the inspector out of the limelight, but he is determined to solve the mystery with or without their approval. |
 | The Body Of A Girl Detective Chief Inspector Mercer is called to the scene when a skeleton of a girl is found on Westlaugh Island in the upper reaches of the River Thames. What appears to be a straightforward and routine investigation, however, leads to unexpected events and a string of unlikely characters, including a lawyer and a one armed garage proprietor. Nothing seems to fit together and it seems the sleepy town holds many secrets. The finale involves two nights of dramatic violence and it isn’t until this stage is reached that the twisted truth finally emerges. |