Simon Mason (b. 1962) is an English novelist who writes for children, young people and adults. Two instalments of his extensive and versatile body of work – from the Wilkins Detective Series – have been translated into Estonian. The series centres on an unusual detective duo: both men share the surname Wilkins, but one, Ryan, has grown up in constrained and even criminal surroundings, while the other, Ray, comes from a more refined and educated background. The former struggles to accept authority and to function smoothly in society, whereas the latter moves through the English upper classes with ease. The first novel, A Killing in November (Estonian translation Varrak, 2023, trans. Jüri Kolk), originally published in 2022, sees the Wilkinses confronted with the murder of a young woman found strangled in the rector’s office at Balliol College, Oxford. In the second book, The Broken Afternoon (Estonian translation Varrak, 2025, trans. Jüri Kolk), published in 2024, a four-year-old girl’s disappearance from a nursery in an affluent neighbourhood sets off a chain of dark events.
Simon Mason
