A Mysterious Affair of Style

To My Editor, Walter Donohue

Dear Walter,

When, prompted by your enthusiasm for The Act of Roger Murgatroyd, you proposed that I write a sequel, I immediately rejected the idea on the grounds that I’ve always made it a point of honour never to repeat myself. Later, however, it occurred to me that I had never written a sequel before (to one of my own books, at least) and hence, applying what I acknowledge is a slightly warped species of logic, to write one now would represent another new departure for me. So if, to adapt Hitchcock’s metaphor, fiction can also be a slice of cake, I hope you’ve left room for seconds.

Gilbert