Sins for Father Knox

Detective Divertimento

Ten detective stories in which Josef Škvorecký reminds us of the rules of Mr. Knox that an author must not break in a detective story. Starring Lieutenant Borůvka and singer Eva Adamová.

Ronald Arbuthnot Knox (1888-1957), an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism, not only read detective stories but wrote them himself. For the purposes of the Detection Club, an association of authors of detective stories, the theologian has created a code of rules that an author must not break in a detective story. Josef Škvorecký has written ten short stories, each of which sins against one rule of Knox's Ten Commandments. And to ensure that Lieutenant Borůvka is not alone in the trap set by the writer, the author has placed a sympathetic, clever and pretty singer Eva Adamová by his side, who is far from sinful. Unfortunately, her sins do not include Lieutenant Pine, who continues to see the world through sad eyes.