Reading the Detectives discussion

Welcome to our April/May 23 buddy read of The Conqueror Inn the eighteenth book in the Bobby Owen book, first published in 1943.

"I wouldn't come any nearer if I were you. It's not a thing to see unless you have to."

The remote Conqueror Inn, possibly the oldest licensed house in England, has an unexpectedly key role to play in World War Two. Lorry drivers, army camps, black marketeers and even the IRA become entangled in the sinister web which draws this novel's plot together. Bobby Owen, after finding a case of banknotes, has to identify a corpse mutilated in its grave, ignore the red herrings thrown in his way ... and identify a ruthless killer who uses the confusion of war to conceal his tracks.

The Conqueror Inn was first published in 1943, the eighteenth of the Bobby Owen mysteries, a series eventually including thirty-five novels. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

Please do not post spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

Am starting this today.

And I started yesterday.

Finished and really enjoyed this book. It astonishes me how Punshon manages to find new themes for Booby to investigate in all these books. Olive gets a look in but not much.

Just started, agree with Jill that every book seems fresh and different, I still wish he’d stayed in London though.

I've belatedly started this one (held up by other books!) and am enjoying it so far - I tend to save the introductions until I've finished, but am wondering if the introduction will shed any light on why Punshon moved Bobby to the countryside, even though I've read that he himself stayed in London through the Blitz.