jokeyness

— ‘The discovery of this woman’s body suddenly threw a complex of apparently unrelated incidents into an integrated whole. You grind away at routine, you collect a vast amount of data ninety-per-cent of which is useless and then—some thing happens and Bingo—the other ten-per-cent sits up like Jacky and Bob’s your uncle.’ He paused, having astonished himself by this intemperate excursion into jokeyness.