Dodie Golightly and the Ghost of Cock Lane (short story)
Dodie Golightly and the Ghost of Cock Lane was the sixth release in The Book of Extraordinary Amateur Sleuth and Private Eye Stories anthology which was written by Paul Magrs. This release prominently featured the character of Dodie Golightly who originated in the 2013 Iris Wildthyme story The Ninnies on Putney Common, and is set a year after the events of Mystery Lady.
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Attending Cock Lane studio for Dodie Golightly's interview Timothy Bold heard the ghostly voice of Scratching Fanny through a speaker. After Dodie's interview she and Timothy stuck around to watch the Brontosaurus band play while Cassandra used her abilities to look backwards through time in order to learn more about Fanny.
In the past Cassandra saw that Mr and Mrs Parsons, the owners of the house that Fanny had died in, were the ones to initially discover her ghost and, creating the legend of "Scratching Fanny", they charged the locals money to visit their home. The Parsons' daughter Elizabeth Parson appeared to Cassandra and revealed that the public eventually turned against her family believing that they had fabricated the story and she, her parents and brother were imprisoned in Newgate where she died without ever seeing her family again.
Back in the studio Dodie questioned DJ Keith about Fanny's hauntings of the Cock Lane studio, which was situated on the site where Fanny's house had one been. Keith informed Dodie that Fanny had communicated with an old radio presenter, Gary, and allowed her access to the archived recording which saw Fanny explaining that she had hadn't died of scarlet fever but had actually been murdered by her husband with arsonic.
Dodie, Timothy, Cassandra, Keith, the members of Brontosaurus and a couple of girls that Timothy had chatted up, all gathered in the graveyard and unearthed Fanny's grave. The group discovered that Fanny had been perfectly preserved, which ruled out her death having been scarlet fever and confirmed the story about her murder.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Dodie Golightly
- Timothy Bold
- Cassandra
- Keith
- Fanny Kemp
- Mr Parsons
- Mrs Parsons
- Elizabeth Parsons
- Moira
- Gary
- Sally
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
