Det. Sgt. Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard investigates the discovery of a severed arm in Stepney, as well as the disappearance of a communist, with both cases turning out to be connected to each other and the current war. Squadron Leader Neville Pym, also referred to as N. A. G. Pym, is MI5’s liaison with the Yard. A female friend of the communist has as a neighbor a fat bald man involved in Civil Defense, specifically Heavy Rescue. The Fat Man tells Troy, “I did a lot of work before the war for a detective like – amateur mind, a gentleman – in fact I’d be doin’ it now, but that he took ’imself off to the army and one of those ’ush-’ush jobs.” Perhaps Neville A. G. Pym’s middle initials stand for Arthur Gordon, and he is descended from a child of Poe’s Arthur Gordon Pym who immigrated to Britain. The Fat Man is Magersfontein Lugg, the peacetime manservant to Margery Allingham’s detective Albert Campion. Campion and Lugg’s wartime activities are described in the original novels. Lugg will go on to make several more appearances in the Troy series, but I will not list all of them here. Lawton’s novels about MI5 agent Joe Wilderness are set in the same universe as the Troy books.
This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!
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