The Puzzling World
of Thomas P. Stanwick
Stanwick, Walker, Bodwin, Rufus…they are just a part of the puzzling world of the
Stanwick mini-mysteries! Many of the other regular people and places in the stories are listed
and then described below. Read all about them!
Thomas P. Stanwick
(is on a previous page)
Baskerville
Inspector Matthew Walker
Rufus
Other Regular Characters
Police
Sergeant Hatch (Royston Police)
Inspector Gilbert Bodwin (Scotland Yard)
Doc Pillsbury (Royston Chief Medical Examiner)
Chief William Ryan (Baskerville Police)
Winston Langworth (Knowdwyn Chief Constable)
FBI Special Agent Ryan Cooper
American Friends
Amanda Tucker (Logic Club)
Susan Carlie (Logic Club)
Whit Knowlton (Logic Club)
Professor Regis Arnold (Logic Club)
Ron and Gen Hardis
Ellen Bryant
English Friends
James, Earl of Stanwyck
Annie Tynsdale
Niles Archer
Other Frequently Visited Places
Royston
Milverton, Rye
London
Knordwyn
East Grincham
BASKERVILLE
is a small town in New England, located about ten miles from the city of
Royston. Stanwick and his dog Rufus live in a bungalow there.
Baskerville has a town square with a Civil War obelisk, a flagpole, and a large fir tree.
Adjacent to the square are an old church, the town hall, and a small inn. Main Street runs
off the square and is occupied by a variety of shops and professional offices. Among
these are the Baskerville Bookshop, Kreckman’s Groceries (Otto Kreckman, prop.),
Ollie’s Army and Navy Store, and Harrigan’s Hardware. Further out lie residential
streets, including Stanwick’s neighborhood.
On the other side of the inn are a large playground and an elementary school. The town
also has a junior/senior high school. High school football games are played there every
weekend in the autumn, and the Snack Shack beside the field does a hectic business
during games.
Baskerville residents hold an annual Open Town Meeting to decide the town budget and
other civic issues. A Board of Selectmen run the local government the rest of the time.
Stanwick occasionally serves on a town committee.
May is a busy month in Baskerville. An annual Craft & Bake Fair is held on the
playground on the first Saturday in May. On Memorial Day, the last Monday of the
month, the town throws a pancake breakfast in the Armory, holds a parade, and has a
chicken barbecue in the playground. Another barbecue, another parade, and a fireworks
display is held on Independence Day (July 4th). Christmas carols are sung on the town
square every Christmas Eve.
Stanwick likes Baskerville very much and knows many of his townspeople and
neighbors. He is always glad to help them or his friend William Ryan, the chief of police,
clear up a mystery.
INSPECTOR MATTHEW WALKER
of the Royston Police is a highly respected police inspector
and a close friend of Stanwick’s. Stanwick often helps Walker solve difficult cases.
A man in his mid-thirties (a few years older than Stanwick), Walker is married and has
two sons. His wife, Elizabeth, is thirty, and his boys, Peter and Tim, are nine and six
respectively. At five foot ten, Walker is about four inches shorter and notably stockier
than the tall, lean Stanwick. He has a roundish head and close-cut, sandy hair. Fond of
cheap cigars, he occasionally smokes a pipe and enjoys a glass of beer. When exposed to
heights, Walker suffers from vertigo.
Unlike the well-traveled Stanwick, Walker has lived in one place, the city of Royston, all
his life. He went to community college in Royston, and lives with his family in a small
house in the city. Walker is energetic and ambitious, and has both a sometimes irascible
temper and a sharp, wry sense of humor. He is also keenly intelligent. Walker can play
chess well (almost as well as Stanwick) and appreciates abstract reasoning.
He and Stanwick have a strong, abiding friendship. They play chess together at the
Royston Chess Club every Thursday evening, and Stanwick usually drops in at Walker’s
office at headquarters once or twice a week. They kid each other constantly, and
challenge each other freely and frankly when they disagree. Stanwick respects Walker’s
intelligence and professional training and experience, and Walker admires Stanwick’s
superior powers of observation and reasoning. Both know that Stanwick’s value in an
investigation is that of an observer and a logician, and Walker is happy to share some of
his cases with so useful a friend.
RUFUS
is Stanwick’s black Labrador retriever, and his only pet. Stanwick takes him for a
brisk walk every morning and usually again in the late afternoon. Rufus is a friendly,
faithful dog who adores his master and tolerates his pipe-smoking and his occasional
sudden absences. He is also very fond of the Walkers, and usually stays with them when
Stanwick is away on a long trip.
SERGEANT HATCH
of the Royston Police assists Walker in criminal investigations. He is
often at the crime scene before Walker, and does most of the preliminary interviewing of
victims and witnesses. Walker appreciates his great efficiency and the conciseness of his
reports.
INSPECTOR GILBERT BODWIN
of Scotland Yard is a good friend of Stanwick’s, and is his link
to the Yard. Stanwick visits London at least once or twice a year, and always calls on
Bodwin when he’s there. Very often he ends up accompanying Bodwin to the scene of a
crime, which Stanwick is glad to help solve.
Bodwin is a large, burly man with a ruddy face and hammy hands. He is married and is
several years older than Stanwick.
"DOC" PILLSBURY
is the Chief Medical Examiner of Royston and the surrounding county.
He often appears when a dead body mysteriously turns up. A short, owlish man in his
early sixties, his manner is crusty but his competence is legendary.
CHIEF WILLIAM RYAN
of the Baskerville Police is a lean, taciturn man with thinning hair and
graying skin. He fought in the Second World War. Stanwick gets along cordially with
him, which is just as well, since it gives Stanwick a chance to make Baskerville’s low
crime rate even lower.
WINSTON LANGWORTH
is the Chief Constable of the English village of Knordwyn (see
below), and another of Stanwick’s good friends in law enforcement. He has a large,
ruddy face with a Lincoln beard, and always tells the truth. All too often, though, he
absentmindedly forgets which of his fellow villagers are liars and which are truth-tellers.
This of course allows Stanwick to exercise his powers of deduction in solving crimes in
the village.
FBI SPECIAL AGENT RYAN COOPER
is based in Washington, but often handles matters requiring the
attention of the Bureau in the Royston area. An energetic man with black hair and black
eyes, he gets along well with Walker, which minimizes the usual tension between federal
agencies and local authorities in criminal investigations. When he is in Royston on a case,
he, Walker, and Stanwick usually meet over dinner to discuss it.
AMANDA TUCKER
is an attorney in her mid- to late forties, whose strawberry blonde hair is
starting to show a touch of gray. She is a member of the Logic Club, which meets
monthly for dinner to discuss logic (both theoretical and practical) and puzzles. Its motto
is “Logic is a Many-Splendored Thing.” Stanwick is the club president, and Walker is
also a member. Twice divorced, she has a teenage son named Roger.
SUSAN CARLIE
is also a member of the Logic Club. A young woman with brown hair and
glasses (or sometimes contact lenses), she works as a statistician for a government
agency. She and Stanwick enjoy debating politics and government. Susan is married (to
George), and has no children.
WHIT KNOWLTON
is a retired trial lawyer in his early eighties, and is another member of the
Logic Club. He has white hair, a long, drooping mustache, and weary eyes. Blessed with
a long but selective memory, he enjoys telling stories about his past trials, but often
forgets key points, such as crucial evidence or the outcome. This sometimes give
Stanwick an opportunity for deduction.
PROFESSOR REGIS ARNOLD, the sixth and final member of the Logic Club, is a professor of
philosophy at Royston State College. Unusually for a philosophy professor, he has a solid
knowledge of traditional logic, which he and Stanwick enjoy discussing (and sometimes
debating). He is a rotund man in his early fifties who wears glasses and has a fringe of
dark hair around his bald pate.
RON AND GEN HARDIS
are a vigorous elderly couple who live in Baskerville and are good friends
of Stanwick’s. More than once, they have brought him minor mysteries to solve. Ron is a
lean man with close-cropped white hair and a strong jaw. Gen is a small, kindly woman,
also with white hair. They have grown children and grandchildren whom they often visit.
ELLEN BRYANT
is an elderly woman who was referred to Stanwick by her friends the
Hardises when she had a small mystery of her own. She and Stanwick, whom she thinks
is much too thin, have become friends as well, and she sometimes calls at his bungalow
with cookies. She has a lined but pleasant face, and keeps her gray hair in a bun.
JAMES, EARL OF STANWYCK
is a distant relative of Stanwick’s, and about the same age. They got to know
each other when Stanwick was a graduate student in England, and Stanwick always stays
with him for a few days when he revisits the UK. A man of considerable wealth, the
Earl has an estate in East Anglia, where he cultivates prize orchids, and another in the
Scottish Highlands, where he manages an interesting staff of servants.
ANNIE TYNSDALE
is a young, pretty woman who runs a confectioners shop in Cambridge,
England. She and Stanwick were romantically involved when he was a graduate student
at the University there, but eventually went their separate ways. They remain friends,
however, and stay in touch. Stanwick also sees her when he visits England. She is single.
NILES ARCHER
is a National Trust administrator at Chartwell, formerly the country home of
one of Stanwick’s heroes, Winston Churchill. Stanwick sometimes visits Chartwell when
he is in England, and has become friendly with the NT staff there. Niles is a soft-spoken
man in his fifties with thinning hair and thick framed glasses.
ROYSTON
is the medium-sized coastal New England city where Inspector Walker lives and
works, and which Stanwick often visits. It lies about ten miles east of Stanwick’s home
town of Baskerville. It was named in colonial times after an English town near
Cambridge.
MILVERTON AND RYE
are small towns near Baskerville. They have very small police forces,
so when serious crimes occur the police sometimes have to get help from Royston, the
nearest city. This is how Walker and Stanwick sometimes get involved in their cases.
LONDON
is the capital of Great Britain, not the fine city in Ontario, Canada. It is also
Stanwick’s favorite city, which he visits at least once every year. He knows it very well,
but learns more on every visit. He has several good friends in London, including
Inspector Bodwin of Scotland Yard.
The small village of KNORDWYN in Northumbria, England, holds a special place in
Stanwick’s heart. It has cobbled streets and winding streams, and is surrounded by rolling
green hills. Its most distinctive feature is its residents, half of whom always tell the truth
and the other half of whom always lie. His conversations there are therefore interesting
exercises in deductive reasoning.
When in Knordwyn, Stanwick stays at the Grey Boar Inn, a few miles north of the center
of town. He tries to visit the village in August for the Queen Anne Festival, an annual
celebration of contests, racing, cooking, crafts, balladeering, and other activities. It is held
in honor of Queen Anne, who visited the village in 1702 while on her way to Scotland.
The Chief Constable of Knordwyn is Winston Langworth (see above).
Stanwick also likes the English village of EAST GRINCHAM, which is similar to Knordwyn
except for having normal inhabitants. Stanwick enjoys swapping stories with villagers at
the Cock n’ Bull Pub.
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