Notes on the Settings and Characters of “Stranger to Town” by L. P. Davies (1969)

Settings:
Harmsley Cosset, a small English market town; Early closing day = Wednesday.
Room 4 at the Regent Hotel in Station Road; Hetty Blake = receptionist; Mrs Upton = manageress.
‘The Bowls Club’ at the White Hart, where Micky was the landlord.

Clayton, a town about 5 miles distant from Harmsley Cosset.

Characters:
Julian Wilton Midwinter, a tall, well-dressed, distinguished-looking 52-year-old bachelor with silvery-white hair and a white moustache. This retired publisher had arrived in Harmsley Cosset (from Nottingham) on the morning that the book begins, because he got on the wrong train. - p 32

Joey Batty, the elderly porter at the tiny wayside railway station of ‘Harmsey’ [pronunciation of Harmsley], which was on a single-track railway-line.

The widowed Mrs. Amy Hardman of The Cedars, Maryland Terrace, whose late husband, Josh Hardman, had died 2 years previously in a car crash. - pp 119 - 120

Constable Peter Foxley, the nephew of Mrs. Foxley.

Dan Grayson, a tobacconist who lived above his shop.

Dicky Rushton, the local chemist (pharmacist).

Mervyn Dobie, the previous owner of the hardware shop, now retired.

Jerry Blackall, the present owner of the hardware shop, who lived above his shop.

George Prescott, formerly Josh Hardman’s assistant, now in his late 20s.

Fred Dawson, an electrician at Clayton; Willis, a decorator at Clayton; Lomax, the Clayton policeman.

Plot Teaser:
Who is trying to kill newcomer Julian, and why?

(Page references are to the Crime Club edition published by Doubleday in 1969.) ( )