The body lay partly on the carpet, partly on the parquet. It appears that at the moment of the attack, Devenish fell to his knees and fell backwards. His handsome face became white, like marble. Judging by his clothes, he was getting ready for work. Now the jacket and shirt are darkened with blood, and a bouquet of roses seems to bloom on the tie. When the story ended, Wexford called it the "Children's Crusade" because children played an important role in it. According to Freud, every person is unhappy in childhood. But some, the inspector thought, are more unfortunate than others.

A new mystery, which the famous Inspector Wexford takes on to solve, is in Ruth Rendell's novel The Disorder of Things.