We know hardly anything about anything. - Catherine Aird

In detective work you thought in much the same way as you would pick your way across a swamp, testing for firm ground each time you took a step forward.

WHO HAS HIS BIRTH DAY, HAS HIS BURIALL TOO; AS WE INTO THE WORLD COME, OUT WE GOE.

Neither task appealed to a man of his temperament. One required action and the other thought. Both were anathematical to Constable Mason. His working life had been centered around the skillful ‘referral to higher authority’ of anything involving any effort.