The 'surprise' in Mr Vickers's stories is, of course, supplied by the way in which his murderers are detected; and this is where the Department of Dead Ends comes in - that repository of files which were never completed, of investigations without a clue and clues which led nowhere. From time to time, quite illogically, Inspector Rason finds a connection between happenings in the outside world and the objects in his Scotland Yard museum, a rubber trumpet, maybe, or a bunch of red carnations. Then events move inexorably to their appointed end.

'One of the half-dozen successful books of detective short stories published since the days of Sherlock Holmes.' Manchester Evening News