leaned clearly toward the latter, with an emphasis on character and psychology which anticipated later crime fiction writers such as Ruth Rendell and P.D. James. His novels tend to focus on ordinary people drawn into a murderous chain of events; the intricate plots are often spiced with black humour. Novels typical of his style include The Colour of Murder (1957), the Edgar-winning The Progress of a Crime (1960), The Man Whose Dreams Came True (1968) The Man Who Lost His Wife (1970) and The Plot Against Roger Ryder (1973). Symons wrote two modern-day Sherlock Holmes pastiches, as well as a pastiche set in the 1920s. In A Three-Pipe Problem (1975), the detective was "...a television actor, Sheridan Hayes, who wears the mask of Sherlock Holmes and assumes his character. The book neatly reversed the usual theme of the criminal behind the mask by having a rather commonplace man wearing the mask of the great detective." A sequel The Kentish Manor Murders was written in 1988. For his 1981 book The Great Detectives, he wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche instead of a biographical sketch. Entitled "How a Hermit was Disturbed in His Retirement," the events of the tale take place in the 1920s as Sherlock Holmes is drawn out of retirement to solve an unusual missing persons case. The story was included in the collection The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in which it was given the more Doylean title of "The Adventure of Hillerman Hall." He also made occasional forays into historical mystery, such as The Blackheath Poisonings (1978), which was filmed for television in 1992, and with Sweet Adelaide (1980). In 1941, Symons married Kathleen Clark; they had a son, Mark. Symons died at his home at Walmer, in Kent, and was survived by his widow and son. Works Crime fiction Inspector Bland The Immaterial Murder Case (1945) A Man Called Jones (1947) Bland Beginning (1949) Inspector Crambo The Narrowing Circle (1954) (filmed in 1956 as The Narrowing Circle) The Gigantic Shadow (1958), as The Pipe Dream (US) Sheridan Hayes A Three-Pipe Problem (1975) The Kentish Manor Murders (1988) Joan Khan-Harper The Man Who Killed Himself (1967) (filmed in 1969 as Arthur! Arthur!) The Man Whose Dreams Came True (1968) The Man Who Lost His Wife (1970) The Players and the Game (1972) The Plot Against Roger Rider (1973) The Detling Murders (1982), as The Detling Secret (US) Other