Controls and splinter bids are explained in detail in the book. Their use give you an advantage over your opponents in deciding when slam is possible, when to stop in game or even stop below game when that is the correct choice. The variety of situations that are covered will improve your bidding and help you get to the right contract every time!

The Ellies are a happy family who live on Barton Street, a small street on the north side of Sumter, South Carolina. Lonni is very smart and always wins a Sunday School trophy every year. This year is different. Lonni gets too comfortable with always winning and thinks she doesn't have to study for the Sunday School test, but she learns a hard lesson about honesty. Will she win a trophy anyway?

Barton Tunnel is some six miles from Merriton on a small single-line railway linking up Merriton with the main system, which it joins at Fulchurch Junction. There is a train which leaves Merriton at 4.20 p.m. and arrives at Fulchurch at 4.40. When it drew into that station yesterday afternoon, a guard, on opening the door of a first-class smoker, was horrified to discover the body of a well-dressed, middle-aged man lying in a huddled heap on the floor near the farther door, the window of which was down. Sexton Blake investigates.