Room at the Inn

Recently released from prison, Don McMacnus visits his old friend Kurt Stahr. Although it is the day of his daughter's wedding, Stahr agrees to an audience with Emanuel Johnston, the criminal and copkiller with whom he has some business. McMacnus wanders into the garden and a tornado of fury sweeps through him. The debonair Major Bragg, the new husband to whom Stahr has entrusted his precious daughter, is a fraudster of the most sinister kind. With Room 13 in 1974 we introduce readers to Mr. Barnabus Phyff, one of the least glamorous of all fictional detectives. Mr. Barnabus Phyff is neither a police detective nor an amateur crimefighter, nor is he a private detective. In fact he's employed by the Bank of England, and acts as a kind of consultant to Scotland Yard. He's a shabby rather timid little man in his 60s, and even the thought of handling firearms appalls him. He's hesitant and vague in manner and sees slightly dotty. He also has one of the sharpest brains in the country and an encyclopedic knowledge of criminals and crime. British prisons contain many wrongdoers who made the mistake of not taking Mr. Barnabus Phyff seriously. There are in fact two heroes in this book, the other being a certain Captain Don McMacnus. Don is a gentleman, and he's also a criminal. He's serving a sentence at Dartmoor Prison for some rather shady dealings on the racetrack. He keeps going by thinking of the girl he hopes to marry. She's the daughter of retired bank robber Kurt Stahr, although she has no idea of her father's villainous past. Don is devastated when he received the news that the lovely Melora is to marry a Canadian officer, and even more upset when upon his release from prison he discovers that this Canadian officer is neither an officer, nor a gentleman, nor a Canadian. There is a dastardly plot afoot, and it involves both a vast counterfeiting ring and an old criminal's quest for revenge on the man he believes betrayed him to the police many years earlier. The Time: 1974 The Place: London