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Young Man on a Bicycle
Book 10 in the Classic Canning series.
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The title novella follows Paul Ashcroft, an opportunistic young Englishman on the French Riviera who survives through theft, impersonation and carefully directed charm. Posing as a respectable visitor, he gains access to villas and wealthy holidaymakers while attributing his crimes to another crook. His calculations become less reliable when the real man appears and Paul develops feelings that do not fit his self-serving code.
This Farrago edition pairs the story with The Goldini Bath, another compact tale of fraud, pursuit and shifting loyalties. Both belong to Canning’s post-war crime writing, using resort culture, cross-border travel and the lingering glamour of continental Europe as more than decorative settings. The protagonists are inventive but morally unstable, and the tension comes from watching improvised identities collide with consequences they cannot fully control.
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