Johnny Swanson

Johnny Swanson, bullied at school because of his diminutive size, answers an advertisement offering the 'secret of instant height'.

It’s a scam of course, but it inspires Johnny to develop his own disingenuous advertising business. But his small crime pales into insignificance when the village doctor is murdered – and Johnny‘s mother is the sole suspect.

Determined to prove her innocence, Johnny is convinced Dr Langford’s secret work developing a British TB vaccine must be why he was killed, but can he save his mother from the hangman?

Set just after World War I, the atmosphere of Britain poised on the edge of economic depression is subtly and beautifully evoked, the characters cleverly and believably drawn – and suspense abounds. Intriguing and highly absorbing.