BURIED FOR PLEASURE:
THE MISSING YEARS
So what exactly was Fen doing between 1954 and 1976/77, when he was glimpsing the moon? A mere for cases can be definitely dated in this period, clearly an unimaginably low workload for Fen.
Or is it? Julian Symons, in his Bloody Murder, argues that after World War II, it was no longer possible for the gifted 'superman' private detective to thrive in Britain. A breakdown in old ways and moralities led to different criminals and different crimes. It is not inconceivable that Fen's interference was no longer acceptable to the same extent, either to the police or to the people affected by crime.
Then too, as he grew, by his own admission, less carefree and irresponsible, did Fen stop to consider the trail of death that lay behind him? Perhaps, too, he began to find more solace in his work. He did, remember, eventually become Dean of St. Christopher’s.
It is possible, therefore, that changing mores combined with age to wither him somewhat, and to lead to his withdrawal from criminal investigation.
But there is another possibility which is just hinted at by Mr Crispin. The case of Outrage in Stepney sees Fen and Campbell of the Special Branch assisting Dietrich to defect to the West. As the full story only became public in 1955, and as Mr Crispin refers to defeated US Presidential Candidate Stevenson, it seems reasonable to assume the outrage occurred in 1953, or '54 at the latest.
The question is, of course, why was Fen accompanying the Special Branch? Could it be that he had moved into a more dangerous, and more secret, line of work? The Cold War, with all it strategems and foils, would surely have given him the intellectual stimulus he craved. He had already dealt with spies, as far back as 1940, in the Holy Disorders case, and this could well have given him an appetite for further dabblings in this shadowy world. As to why Crispin couldn't inform the world — well, the 'Official Secret's Act' is surely as good an explanation as any.
To support this theory, let me pose the question: why did Christopher Bradley approach Fen in A Country to Sell, and how was it that Fen knew exactly who to contact?
This then, is how I envisage Fen spending that missing quarter-century. Combining the life of a don with that of a secret agent. He would not be the first to do so, though unusual in that he was on the ‘right’ side. Perhaps he even left some memoirs with Crispin that will only see the light in 2028, fifty years from Crispin's death. The prospect is intriguing.
