I felt utterly deceived. My father had cheated me just as he had cheated Mr Diamond. My father, that stern and upright man...was nothing but a swindler and a thief!' Young William Jones discovers that his dying father is a swindler. When he sets out for London to right the wrongs his father has done to his old partner, Diamond, he finds the backstreets less than welcoming and all kinds of horrors lying in wait... This marvellous mystery story, by the author of Smith and Black Jack, was given the Whitbread Award for the best children's book.
This book is part of a book series called Puffin Storybooks .
There are 192 pages in this book. This book was published 1981 by Penguin Books Ltd .
Other Leon Garfield books published by Oxford University Press: Devil-in-the-Fog, Black Jack, and Mr Corbett's Ghost.
This book contains the following story:
John Diamond
'My father, that stern and upright man, was nothing but a swindler and a thief!' What is the matter with old Mr Jones? Endless footsteps and low groans can be heard from his room in the dead of night. Only his son William knows the a terrible secret: his father betrayed his business partner Mr Diamond, and swindled him out of a great fortune. William resolves to go to London, find Mr Diamond and make amends. But the murky big city, with its sinister characters and treacherous back streets, is no place for a boy of twelve. And Mr Diamond's own son is not the sort of person to forgive and forget. Danger and deceit lie waiting...
