British writer Copper (The Exploits of Solar Pons) effectively captures the style of Sherlock Holmes tales in four novellas narrated by Dr. Lyndon Parker, who plays Watson to consulting detective Solar Pons in 1920s London. "The Adventure of the Mad Millionaire" requires Pons to discover if the cause of a financier's peculiar behavior is, in fact, all in his head, while "The Adventure of the Cursed Curator" calls upon him to find out why an Egyptologist has had a mummy peering at him through his office bookcase. In "The Adventure of the Hound of Hell," Pons must puzzle out why two sets of footprints enter‘but none leave‘the woodshed in which a rich but miserly and miserable old woman was murdered, and he tackles a locked-room mystery in "The Adventure of the Singular Sandwich." The atmosphere is always first rate, but the puzzles are not elusive enough: readers will catch on to many of the tricks well before Parker. The moment this happens, Pons seems blessed less with genius than with irritating smugness, and the stories diminish in appeal. (Oct.)
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