After Jamie Sturgeon sent me the floor plan of the college that’s the center of Midnight, by the multi-author Mark Strange, I mentioned to him that I love maps and floor plans in detective novels.

   In reply, he sent me this one — see below — a floor plan from The Cat and Fiddle Murders by E.B. Ronald which he recently obtained. He goes on to say, “It could be the most complicated one I have ever seen in a crime novel!”

   I second the motion. I haven’t even asked him what the story’s about. I think that you could probably write your own after seeing this. I hope you can see all of the details.

Cat and Fiddle Murders

[UPDATE] 08-31-07. Jamie responds:

    “Thanks for putting the Ronald floor plan on your blog. It’s not easy to say what The Cat and Fiddle Murders is about. The book has no blurb either inside or on the dust wrapper, where all it says on the front panel is ‘A real cat and a real fiddle at the grotesque “Cat and Fiddle” and why two people are murdered’

Cat and Fiddle Murders

    “Al has it that The Cat and Fiddle Murders is set in New York City when it actually takes place in London. Is it possible that the American version had the setting changed? It appears that the author’s book as Ronald Barker Clue for Murder has, according to one ABE bookseller, several floor plans!”

   Me again. After I posed the question to him about the setting, Al agrees that he was most likely in error and has made the correction in the latest online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV.

   As for Clue for Murder, as soon as I learned about this, I immediately ordered the one cheap copy of it to be found on ABE. More than likely, I’ll report back later.