William Dougal Crime

4 primary works

Caroline Minuscule

by Andrew Taylor

Published 1 July 1982

The first book in the brilliant William Dougal crime series, from the bestselling author of The American Boy and The Ashes of London.

William Dougal, a post-graduate expert in the medieval script of Caroline Minuscule, stumbles on the garroted corpse of his tutor - and finds himself embroiled in a hunt for a cache of diamonds, a deadly fairy story in which no one obeys the rules, least of all Dougal's girlfriend Amanda. As the body count rises, the couple pursue both the diamonds and their doom from London, to an East Anglian cathedral close, from Cambridge to a wintry Suffolk estuary.

Waiting for the End of the World

by Andrew Taylor

Published 28 June 1984

William Dougal is blackmailed into doing a job for his old adversary James Hanbury. All he has to do is keep an eye on Dr Vertag, the leader of a lunatic fringe survival group. But he has hardly started when the barman who tried to warn him off is murdered. Suddenly, Zelda appears from Dougal's murky past, just as suddenly she is kidnapped from his flat. His natural desire to rescue her plunges him into a maelstrom of criminal activities. The shadow of James Hanbury hangs over everything. Like truth itself, Hanbury is rarely pure and never simple ...

Our Fathers' Lies

by Andrew Taylor

Published 1 January 1985

The third instalment of the brilliant William Dougal series, from the bestselling author of The American Boy and The Ashes of London.

There's unfinished business between William Dougal and his widowed father. Part of it has to do with Celia Prentisse, William's ex-girlfriend. When her historian father is found drowned, it's declared suicide, but Celia remains unconvinced - not least because his abandoned clothes were found with a bottle of the wrong brand of gin and a slim volume of Schopenhauer's essays.

It's not much evidence, but it's enough to send her godfather, retired British intelligence officer Major Ted Dougal, and his son William off on a trail that leads to a 1930s arsenic poisoning and a still-classified World War I court martial . . .

Old School Tie

by Andrew Taylor

Published 19 June 1986

The fourth book in the acclaimed William Dougal crime series, from the bestselling author of The American Boy and The Ashes of London.

James Hanbury is a reformed character. Or he would like to be. He plans to marry into respectability: his bride Molly is both rich and of good family. But alas, on the very day of their return from honeymoon, Molly is electrocuted.

Accident or murder? The villagers of Charleston Parva believe that it's murder, and accuse her husband of having expeditiously dispatched her as soon as he had his hands on her money. Local feelings grow tense. Hanbury appeals for help to his old friend and adversary, Dougal, who is himself far from convinced of Hanbury's innocence. After all, he knows better than anyone that Hanbury is capable of murder . . .