Introduction

Bobby Owen begins his beat

Here we are—at last—at the beginning of the police career of Robert “Bobby” Owen.

In the E. R. Punshon “Bobby Owen” novels previously reissued by Ramble House, we have seen him at various stages in his move up the ranks of the police force. Now, in Information Received, we can see the beginning of a career which was ultimately chronicled in thirty-five novels and several short stories.

Cover of the Penguin Books reprint (1955)

In Information Received, Robert Owen, B.A. (Oxon) has been a police constable on the force for about three years; at this point in time he is a bachelor. P.C. Owen has not hitherto stood out from his colleagues in the ranks. However, circumstances at the beginning of the novel see him in the Right Place at the Right Time—and the case in question places Owen in a role which allows his talents to shine through.

Bobby Owen is directly answerable to Inspector Gibbons, but for political reasons Superintendent Mitchell of Scotland Yard C.I.D. has a special interest in the case. The unfolding relationship between the young police constable and the seasoned C.I.D. man proves that, even so early in his career, Bobby Owen’s talents for detective work are evident and seen as worthy of nurture.

This early instalment in Bobby Owen’s career was a later work in the career of E. R. Punshon, who was 61 years old when the book was first published in 1933. Information Received features the author’s distinctive hallmarks of plotting and characterization that shine through in the later Owen books. The novel was reprinted by Penguin Books in 1955 (a year before the author’s death). Sixty years on, and Ramble House are proud to bring this inaugural Bobby Owen mystery back into print for modern audiences.

Gavin L. O’Keefe

South Berwick, ME

February 2015