The Founder’s Portrait: Another Case for Inspector Wickfield

A man's body is found one morning in the grounds of a boys' school in rural Worcestershire. At the same time, the portrait of the school's founder, which hangs in the staff common room, is damaged by the removal of a square of canvas. Inspector Wickfield, who is assigned to the case, deduces, after initial investigation, that the murdered man was trying to steal a small package taped to the back of the portrait, but more questions arise than answers: Who put the package there? What does it contain? Who knew enough to murder the thief?

The inspector's investigation involves another murder, a duplicate package, a case of arson at a knacker's yard, visits to the British Library to research left-handedness, a castle in Scotland and a night-club in London, but it is his wife who provides the final clue to a cunning and deadly plot.

This stylishly written novel, which reworks a tale by Giovanni Boccaccio and is set in the early 1970s, is in the finest traditions of British detective fiction.

Julius Falconer, also author of The Spider's Banquet and The Will of Joan Goode 1793, is a retired teacher and lives in Yorkshire.