THE MISSING LINK (A Rue Morgue Vintage Mystery)

Lyons, Colorado, U.S.A.: Rue Morgue Press, 2004. 1st prtg. A fine, unread copy. A gypsy woman's vision puts a gentleman copper on the trail of a kidnapper in the streets, gardens and halls of Oxford. When two month-old Perdita Link goes missing from her pram in an Oxford don's garden, Inspector Richard Ringwood is asked to interrupt his courting to track her down. It's a very perplexing case. There are almost as many suspects as leads, including a gypsy woman, a mysterious foreign intruder, an observing young thug, a conscientious nanny, and even an eccentric don or two. All Inspector Ringwood knows for sure is that his chances of finding young Perdita alive lessen with each passing hour. With the help of his fiancée, Claire Liddicote, and Sam Plummer, a resourceful, if plodding, Oxford policeman, Richard explores every corner of this ancient university town, from its academic halls to nearby gypsy encampments. An Oxford graduate himself, Richard is equally at home trading witticisms in Latin with the dons as he is in using his limited Romany (book-learned, he has no idea how the words are pronounced) to converse with an old gypsy woman. He's taken aback when she goes into a trance and tells him he is to deal with "a single loss, a double find." Written by the w ife of Austin Farrer, described by the Archbishop of Canterbury as "'possibIy the greatest Anglican mind ol the twentieth century," this very cleverly titled 1952 traditional English mystery offers up a marvelous portrait ot life in Oxford, where the Farrers were intimate friends to CS. Lewis, Charles Williams, .J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dorothy L. Sayers. While there's plenty ot attention paid to the coming and goings of the dons, much of it with tongue firmly planted in cheek, Farrer also depicts the daily doings of their families, as well as the townspeople. with an insider's quiet humor. The action comes to a head during a very avant garde performance of Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale,' leading to Richard's gripping fnial battle with a most fiercesome adversary. 192 pages.. 1st Prtg. Pictorial Wrappers. Fine. Illus. by Pudim, Rob. Trade Paperback.