A book for new adults Series

In this, the fourth and final book in his Septimus Treloar series, Stephen Chance takes the reader back to the early days of the endearing policeman-turned-parson's career, to fill his fans in on the story of Septimus's life as a young man. The setting is World War II, and Septimus has been summoned to handle a very delicate and important assignment. The details of a top secret radar device, code name H2S, have fallen into enemy hands. His mission to discover the cause of the leak removes him from the familiar world of 'honest' crime, and entangles him in the subtle and dangerous workings of wartime counter-espionage.

Before long he is chasing spies, hunting down traitors and crossing international borders in Stephen Chance's exciting and witty thriller. First published in 1979, Septimus and the Spy Ring is a brilliant send off to one of the most eccentric and charming heroes of all young adult fiction.

Septimus and the Stone of Offering

by Stephen Chance

Published 21 October 1976

A mysterious fire on a Welsh hillside on a clear April morning; the remains of a white bird lying in ash on a tombstone with a dagger in its breast; no wonder the Reverend Septimus Treloar, ex-CID Chief Inspector, thinks there's something worth investigating in the small village of Hafod Maenen. With only a handful of clues at his disposal but a great deal of canny instinct, Septimus is drawn into a revolving plot concerning political conspiracy, ancient rites and dark magic powers at work in the depths of the Welsh valleys.

In this, the third of his wonderful Septimus series for young adults, Stephen Chance once more depicts his eccentric hero as he wittingly plays his hand against the forces of evil. Thrillingly plotted, yet with a sense of humour that enlivens the detective story-telling, Septimus and the Stone Offering (1976) is, in the words of The Listener: 'grippingly told . . . as effective in catching the strange, precise landscape, over and under the surface, as in understanding its humans.'