Series:

A Reverend Septimus Treloar Mystery

4 total works

Cover of Septimus and the Spy Ring
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.

Cover of Septimus and the Minster Ghost
The strange events begin with the breathless tale of a mysterious light shining from inside the Minster. Added to reports of ghostly organ music and a piercing scream heard at the dead of night, and the Dean of the Minster has good reason to contact Reverend Septimus Treloar, once a Chief Inspector in the CID. A bad dream, he decides. But before long the mystery deepens with the rumoured return of the ghost of an eighteenth-century organist. Could he have come back from the dead to haunt the Minster? Or will Septimus be able to use his policeman's nous once more to find the villain at the root of it all?

Septimus and the Minster Ghost is the second of Stephen Chance's hugely popular Septimus detective mysteries. First published in 1972, it again combines echoes of Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie, with the author's own characteristic wit and eccentricity.

Cover of Septimus and the Danedyke Mystery

Reverend Septimus Treloar, retired as Chief Inspector of the CID after thirty years service, is now country parson of the seemingly sleepy St. Mary's Danedyke. But the rural calm of his and the villagers' lives are thrown into chaos when mysterious happenings cause them to suspect the haunting of a fabled ghost within the dark recesses of their church. But can this really be a case of supernatural spirits? Or are Septimus's suspicions of thieving mischief closer to the truth? If so, what could be the object of all this criminal plotting? Septimus must use his detective know-how to find the answers on a mission that will lead him to the secret of The Danedyke Cup, a silver gilt relic supposedly once belonging to Our Lady...

The first in Stephen Chance's classic series about Reverend Septimus, 'the one and only beatified bobby,' Septimus and the Danedyke Mystery (1971) has everything: treasure hunts, ancient clues, rollicking humour and quick-witted suspense. It has been described by Philip Ardagh in the Guardian as 'truly marvellous.'

Cover of Septimus and the Stone of Offering

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.'