A short story can aim either at atmosphere or at the anecdote; those which follow belong to the second category. All of them embody the nowadays increasingly neglected principle of fair play to the reader – which is to say that the reader is given all the clues needed to enable him to anticipate the solution by the exercise of his logic and his common sense. He should note, however, that for the solutions of The Drowning of Edgar Foley, Within the Gates, Express Delivery and The Golden Mean he will require in addition some fragments of technical or near technical information on about the level of the average newspaper quiz.
All the stories made their first appearance in print in the London Evening Standard; but the great majority of them have been substantially revised and rewritten for inclusion in this book.
The title Abhorrèd Shears has caused some perplexity, and an explanation may perhaps be acceptable here. The relevant lines are in Milton’s Lycidas:
‘Comes the blind Fury with th’abhorrèd shears,
And slits the thin spun life.’
The particular Fury referred to is of course Atropos. And atropine, named after her, is the poison which figures in my tale.
E.C.
Brixham
1952