Ransom has quite a bit of talk at the beginning that would get the prudes in a dither. References to Lord de Lœngbærrow requesting the Pellis flower tonic several times a week and Li and Lily not needing one despite being of ‘advanced years’ resulted in quite a few complaints. But frankly, I regard them as a clear indication that I am doing things right. The idea that sex between people who are clearly in settled relationships is wrong is nonsense.

Meanwhile, back to the story. Marion and Lily are walking from Liverpool’s Albert Dock, home of the Tate Liverpool art gallery, some tasteful shops, the Beatles museum and a couple of other cultural attractions to Pier Head, along the traffic free river side, passing, among other things, the Three Graces, the elegant trio of Victorian buildings that are central to the waterfront view as seen out on the Mersey. The area around Pierhead has undergone quite a bit of redevelopment in the twenty-first century, but in the mid 1990s when Marion has visited Liverpool, there was a large expanse of unused land, a bus depot and a car park there. The sort of snatch that went on in this story would be possible. The area does get busy, but the kidnapping was sneaky enough to go unobserved.

From there, Marion’s guess at Scotland Road is a given. Liverpool is more or less one long uphill slope from the waterfront to Everton. Scotland Road, which is basically the Liverpool end of the A59 running all the way to Leeds through every large town in between, is one of the arterial roads out of the city centre. I’ve travelled along it by bus, car and foot many times, heading to the very place Marion and Lily eventually end up at. But the location of the safe house where they are held prisoner is part of the suspense until the next episode.

And, yes, Ransom is a bit of a lame title for the story. But I really couldn’t think of a better one. Besides, it does what it says on the tin. What more do you want.

http://www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_Head