Cambridge Noir

In Cambridge it’s often the same old song …

Once again, I found myself running for a library’s emergency exit - bibliophiles snarling at my heels.

Some fool librarian had left the gate to the Black Stacks unbolted. Time for a little light-fingered ‘re-shelving’ of my own …

(The gumshoe is on hiatus. This casenote was first taken on 12 July 2012.)

The sense of being held beneath the deadened, stony gaze of some Olympian elder is known by the library visitors, petty thieves and graduate students of Cambridge alike.

(The gumshoe is on hiatus. This casenote was first taken on 17 July 2012.)

The sculpture was, I reflected, like the librarians within: tall, made of iron and quite tough enough to take out a careless cyclist.

(The gumshoe is on hiatus. This casenote was first taken on 18 April 2012.)

The hush beneath the lamps and strip lights of the Main Reading Room bespoke not concentration, but fear.

With a compelling literalism, the penalty for defacing a book had once required librarians to take the vandal’s face.

After Boxing Day, when the more excitable junior College Fellows scale the Chapel tower for archery practice, I find it best to curl up with a good book.

They say a good book is like a good friend, and in Cambridge it’s generally best to trust only those friends that fit on shelves.

Some fool librarian had left the gate to the Black Stacks unbolted. Time for a little light-fingered ‘re-shelving’ of my own …

The sculpture was, I reflected, like the librarians within: tall, made of iron and quite tough enough to take out a careless cyclist.

In the South Front of the University Library, even the stoutest heart can falter when a deathly hush falls across the carpet-tiled corridors. 

(The gumshoe is on holiday, this case note was taken on  16 August 2011.)

An iMac. Say what you like about the college necromancers, they could never quite keep up with the times.

(The gumshoe is on holiday, this case note was taken on  21 June 2011.)

“The boss wants a quiet word,” is not a reassuring phrase when being escorted by a pair of librarians towards a solitary chair among deserted stacks …

The library’s artful symmetry induced the illusion of a mirror …