Up the stairs at the back of the bookshop. The eighth one creaks.
The office of Penrose Investigations is the room above Harper’s Bookshop on the High Street. Mr Arthur Penrose has been in business there since November 2025.
His advertisement appears in the classified columns of the Seabrook Chronicle, in a small box with a thin black border. It reads, in full:
PENROSE INVESTIGATIONS
All mysteries great and small
Discreet enquiries undertaken
The advertisement gives no address and no telephone number. To find the office, go into the bookshop, walk to the back and take the narrow staircase. There are seventeen steps, and the eighth creaks.
The room is small, with a low ceiling and a single window facing south over the harbour. There is a desk, a filing cabinet, a corkboard and a kettle, and a record is generally playing at low volume. The grey tabby on the windowsill is Holmes. He takes no part in enquiries.
Mr Penrose’s fees are modest and his terms simple. No appointment is needed. Post is taken in at the bookshop counter. Mrs Finch wishes it to be known that the tea room is not an answering service.
Details
- Address
- Above Harper’s Bookshop, High Street
- Proprietor
- Mr Arthur Penrose
- Hours
- Most mornings from about 9.30
- No hours are posted
On the map
Marked on the town map as “Harper’s Bookshop and the office above”.
Appears in
- Book 0Prequel A Small Matter of a Missing Cat
- Book 1 Murder at Seabrook Pier
- Book 2 Grounds for Murder
- Book 3 The Seabrook Regatta Sabotage
What the locals say
“Used to be a detective, so I’m told. Retired. Keeps himself to himself, mostly.”
