Justice Preserved by William Allan is a type of training wheels mystery novel for readers who are investigating the genre: mystery. It is a collection of twelve short stories possibly best read as a series of short stories with perhaps a week or two separating the experiences. Without such a separation the following chapter beginnings become very annoying: “Detective Frank Johnson was sitting in his favourite comfy chair …” There are a few variations after this but the repetitive nature of this opening to almost every chapter drove me crazy. In Chapter One Johnson was reading, in Chapter Two it was sipping tea, in Chapters Three and Four it was when the phone rang. Only in Chapter Ten was Frank not in his “comfy chair.” Chapter Eleven was the only chapter which began with a character that was not Frank. Although I do not have a clear mental picture of what a “comfy chair” is, should I ever recognize such a chair, I will burn it.
