The Sleuth Slayers (short story)

The Sleuth Slayers was the third story in the anthology Wildthyme on Top. It was written by Jake Elliot.

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Iris Wildthyme joins in on the investigation of the murders of the country's amateur detectives.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Iris Wildthyme
• Tom
• Man with bowler hat
• Georgie Price Jones
• Miss Jane
• Professor Proven
• Mr Sherrinford
• Hercule Smith
• Mrs H
• Dmitri

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Miss Jane was investigating the murder of Dr Gorley Herring at Betteredge Hall.
• Professor Proven references Professor Fen and Ronald Knox. He has a Cluedo game.
• Iris and her friends celebrate solving the murders with champagne.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The man, whose name is never given, is implicitly John Steed from The Avengers. His partner, Georgie Price Jones, worked with Steed in the Avengers episode The Girl from AUNTIE.
• The amateur detectives are all pastiches of famous literary detectives: Miss Jane of Miss Marple, Hercule Smith of Hercule Poirot, and Mr Sherrinford of Sherlock Holmes.
• Among the murdered detectives are: a travelling French detective found dead in mysterious circumstances (possibly Jules Maigret?), a retired policeman called Cuff who was smothered by his roses (Sergeant Cuff), a part-time solicitor-detective who was gassed in his chambers (possibly Martin Hewitt?) and a dabbling aristocrat who was crushed under some rare books (possibly Lord Peter Wimsey?)
• A small man in clerical dress with a blank, unprepossessing face (Father Brown) briefly appears.
• A number of detectives make unnamed cameo appearances at the restaurant: a suave-looking man doodling stick figures with halos (Simon Templar), a middle-aged couple who address each other as "old bean" and "old thing" (Tommy and Tuppence) and a vague-looking man wearing horn-rimmed glasses (Albert Campion).

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added