Pamela Shropshire's Reviews > Without Conscience

There are two connected mysteries in this one. It starts when Johnny is hired by an unhappy wife to find out if her husband, Walter Riley, is having an affair. He isn’t; he’s a secret transvestite and frequents a club for men of that persuasion. He is murdered right in front of Johnny, the only clue being that the man was in a black Wolesley. Johnny is determined to find the murderer and learns that Walter worked at the War Office.

Meanwhile, an AWOL sociopathic soldier named Harryboy Jenkins picks up a young, innocent girl named Rachel who just arrived in London from her dull home in Wales. Jenkins has murdered a vicar and stolen his car and continues a spree of armed robbery and murder. Johnny runs into them at Benny’s café. During his investigation of Riley’s death, he keeps encountering Jenkins and Rachel and tries to help Rachel.

To complicate matters even more, Peter, the young homeless boy from Book 1, is back in London. He was bullied relentlessly in Devon where he had gone to live and after having cow manure rubbed into his face but his tormentors, he runs away and returns to London.

All ends well, of course, and Johnny comes up with a way for Peter to stay in London with elderly sisters who run a boarding house.