Horseshoe to Gumshoe: The D.B. Murphy Omnibus features three of Thomas' D.B. Murphy detective novels and a previously unpublished novella.
"I know a lot generally about the history of Owen Sound," Thomas said. "But I pick the time frame for the novel, and I research it thoroughly. So I go through all the local newspapers and I add in bits of things that were actually happening in the area at the time."
All of Thomas' novels are set in the 1920s in the Owen Sound and Grey County area. The following passage is a reflection of the extensive research Thomas does on the area in order to set the scene in his mystery novels.
"Owen Sound was a city on the move. Progress was the word of the day. The centre of commerce for Bruce and Grey counties, it had been, before the war, the busiest port on the Great Lakes. As for the northern terminus for the Grand Turk and Canadian Pacific railways, it was the transfer point for western migration. Many immigrant families, some speaking little English, passed through Owen Sound. A few stayed, tempted by either the fertile farmlands of the surrounding townships or perhaps the promise of harvest from Georgian Bay. Slowly, the little county town had grown into a city.
It was divided straight through the middle by the Sydenham River, with the downtown on the east side. Shoulder to shoulder, buildings crowded 2nd Avenue East. Most days, the start of business was signalled by the unfurling of storefront canopies up and down the street. Clustered thick as leaves, it was possible on a cool summer's day to walk from one end of the main street to the other in cool shade. The boardwalks had long since been replaced with cement, the main street paved. Hitching rails and watering troughs had disappeared, replaced by angle parked automobiles. No matter. Few horse and buggy owners would risk the city, due to the increasing frequency of accidents involving fast cars. Even the silent policemen-concrete barriers in each intersection-failed to slow many drivers, especially the young ones. I didn't have a car myself. I suppose in some way, I held cars responsible for ruining my life. At least temporarily.
Now I had a case. I'd have to mark September 2 on my 1922 calendar. My first anniversary.
Booze seemed to be the starting point. Owen Sound was a prohibition town and my vote in April against any importation of alcohol had strengthened the hold of the dry forces. It seemed to me that the only real change since the vote was an increase in illegal activity. People still drank as much as ever. If you had money and you could get the stuff on prescription from your doctor. Otherwise, every Tom, Dick and Harry had swamp whisky going in the laundry tub.
There were any number of booze cans in the city, but you had to keep up. They moved often, to stay ahead of the Temperance Enforcement Officers. Dry cops. The other option was to find a bootlegger and my boyhood friend Razor Eddie happened to be just about the busiest. He spent a lot of time at The Manjuris, a local pool hall. That's where I decided to start my search for Willy."
From Gas Head Willy, Thomas' first D.B. Murphy novel, pages 31-32 of Horseshoe to Gumshoe: The D.B. Murphy Omnibus
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