Dr Glazer the Chemistry Tutor

Dr Glazer the Chemistry TutorDr. Glazer's story makes for an excellent detective story and a thoroughly entertaining one at that. Now, after reading his first book, Quantum Book Club, I can definitely see why he was so popular on BBC TV when I was growing up.The elements of modern detective stories are all there: the forensic detective, the suspect, the guilty conscience, the laboratory, the secret identity and so on. In Quantum Book Club, Dr Glazer introduces the reader to chemistry as an undergraduate student. The book concentrates more on chemistry than on chemistry students.I remember watching the British television series, The Fifth Estate, when I was about ten. Dr Glazer plays the part of Peter Gray, a small-time crook and con man, who is arrested for fraud and robbery. He is given the chance to defend himself, but when the authorities are not interested in his story, he goes to trial.It is on the last day of the trial that one of the top British detectives has to be called awa y for some urgent work. What does he find out about Peter? Nothing, of course.One day, Dr. Glazer gets a phone call from Peter. 'You should visit me in Birmingham,' he says. 'It's amazing where the clues go,' he continues. 'Look.'At the site of an accident, he finds a helmet, which was the item stolen from his friend when he took her to meet the girl who lived in the house that he could not get to. He mentions the name of the girl who lived in the house to which the mask belonged, and there is just one problem with the story.Apparently, it was a mask made of white paint, which he bought in a shop for three pounds. So, Dr Glazer solved the mystery, and was the hero of the story, and it was not so much the plot of the story as the power of his imagination, and his keen sense of observation, that propelled him to the role of the detective in a way that any of us could have done.