Beware of the Trains

All but one of the short mysteries in "Beware of the Trains" first appeared in the "London Evening Standard." Gervase Fen, Crispin's inimitable amateur detective and Professor of English Language and Literature in Oxford University stars in all but the final two stories. Detective-Inspector Humbleby of New Scotland Yard usually plays the role of Watson to Fen's Holmes, and the reader is always given the clues needed to solve each of the sixteen mysteries before the final denouement.My favorite story, "The Golden Mean," is also an essay on evil. A son attempts to kill his father, and there is no mystery about what happened. Fen's challenge is to prove that an attempt at murder occurred in the face of the father's denial:"A word like 'evil' needs (he will tell you) to be used with precaution: the descent of Avernus has no milestones which mark out for the traveller---or for others watching him---the stages of his journey. And yet at the same time there is, perhaps, somewhere along it a Point of No Return."The complete list of stories: "Beware of the Trains;" "Humbleby Agonistes;" "The Drowning of Edgar Foley;" "'Lacrimae Rerum';" "Within the Gates;" "Abhorred Shears;" "The Little Room;" "Express Delivery;" "A Pot of Paint;" "The Quick Brown Fox;" "Black for a Funeral;" "The Name on the Window;" "The Golden Mean;" "Otherwhere;" "The Evidence for the Crown;" and "Deadlock."The last story, "Deadlock" is narrated by a young boy, and is longer and more atmospheric than its predecessors. It is as much a coming-of-age story as it is a mystery.