The Salisbury Manuscripts

Thomas Ansell has just arrived in Salisbury by train, and shares a cab with a clergyman into the city centre.  Canon Selby quickly picks up on the fact that Thomas is a lawyer and that he had at one time thought about joining the army.

Tom has been assigned by the senior in his law firm to pick up a manuscript in Salisbury and bring it back to London for safekeeping until such time that it is deemed reasonable to release it.  After visiting with Canon Slater, Tom is asked to draw up documents with regards to the manuscript and its future.

Returning to his hotel, he finds that his room has been ransacked, but nothing has been taken.  Later, he meets a man who claims to have known his father.  The following day he is summoned by the older brother of Canon Slater.  He demands to know what Tom is doing for his brother.  He also demands that Tom get back certain papers he had given to his younger brother.  Tom is unable to do that because they had been freely given.

Returning to Canon Slater’s house that evening for supper, Tom is surprised to find it quiet and seemingly empty.  However, upon entering the study, he finds Canon Slater - dead!  He also discovers that the document that he was supposed to take to London for safekeeping is missing.  Moments afterwards he is apprehended by the police.  Fortunately, Inspector Foster doesn’t believe that Tom is the killer.

Tom now began to turn his mind to the reason for the killing.  He is surprised when his second visitor is his girlfriend Helen Scott.  She had received a telegram that he was incarcerated and hurried from London.  She also decides that the pair of them should help the police discover the killer.

Helen also decides that they should look into the disappearance of a sexton.  The man has now been missing for a month.  They speak to the elderly sister of the man.  Later they go for a walk on Todd’s Mound near the city. There, they notice a bad smell, and inside a cave, Tom discovers a body.  Could it be the missing man?  Due to decomposition, it is virtually impossible to identify the body.

When another death occurs, Tom and Helen wonder if it is connected in any way to the other deaths.  Can the information that they have help solve the mysteries?  Author Philip Gooden has plenty of action awaiting Tom and Helen with threats to their lives, plus a few surprises thrown in for good measure.  A good, quick read.