(1974), Colin Wilson’s twelfth novel, is the first in a projected series of a dozen police procedural novels, although only two were completed (Stanley (2006), 8). Wilson’s detective, Chief-Superintendent Gregory Saltfleet, bears some similarities to Jules Maigret, the famous sleuth created by Georges Simenon (1903-89), and to Inspector George Gently in the novels of Alan Hunter (1922-2005). In contrast to Wilson’s bohemian protagonists, such as Gerard Sorme in
Ritual in the Dark(1960), Harry Preston in
Adrift in Soho(1961) or Kit Butler in
The Black Room(1971), Saltfleet is a salaried professional, like Samuel Kahn, the psychiatrist in
The Killer(1970), and he lives a solid bourgeois life, with a 45-year-old wife, Miranda and an adolescent daughter,…
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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Schoolgirl Murder Case". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 October 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23945, accessed 23 April 2024.]
