Started Early, Took My Dog

After all the adventures in Cambridge and Edinburgh, Brodie returns to his native Yorkshire. Retired, seemingly, a private detective tries to track down the wife who has emptied his bank account—and does so by responding, completely unwillingly, to a sudden letter from New Zealand: “I’ve been adopted, and I’d like to ask: could you find out something about my biological parents?”

But it turns out to be easier said than done: in any archives, Nadine Macmaster’s parents don’t exist—nor does even the fact of adoption. Brodie also never planned to get a dog, but there you go. And least of all did he expect that he would get so interested in poetry…