Locked Rooms (Mary Russell Novels)

Book Description

Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are back in Laurie R. King’s highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling mystery series. And this time the first couple of detection pair up to unlock the buried memory of a shocking crime with the power to kill again–lost somewhere in Russell’s own past.

After departing Bombay by ship, Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes are en route to the bustling modern city of San Francisco. There, Mary will settle some legal affairs surrounding the inheritance of her family’s old estate. But the closer they get to port, the more Mary finds herself prey to troubling dreams and irrational behavior–a point not lost on Holmes, much to Russell’s annoyance.

In 1906, when Mary was six, San Francisco was devastated by an earthquake and a raging fire that reduced the city to rubble. For years, Mary has denied any memory of the catastrophe that for days turned the fabled streets into hell on earth. But Holmes suspects that some hidden trauma connected with the “unforgettable” catastrophe may be the real culprit responsible for Mary’s memory lapse. And no sooner do they begin to familiarize themselves with the particulars of the Russell estate than it becomes apparent that whatever unpleasantness Mary has forgotten, it hasn’t forgotten her. Why does her father’s will forbid access to the house except in the presence of immediate family? Why did someone break in, then take nothing of any value? And why is Russell herself targeted for assassination?

The more questions they ask of Mary’s past, the more people from that past turn out to have died violent, unexplained deaths. Now, with the aid of a hard-boiled young detective and crime writer named Hammett, Russell and Holmes find themselves embroiled in a mystery that leads them through the winding streets of Chinatown to the unspoken secrets of a parent’s marriage and the tragic car “accident” that a fourteen-year-old Mary alone survived–an accident that may not have been an accident at all. What Russell is about to discover is that even a forgotten past never dies…and it can kill again.

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

"Richly imagined.... King’s re-creation of San Francisco, especially the backstory during the devastating 1906 earthquake, is superb, and it’s a pleasure to see the unusually competent Russell struggling with her own psyche."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Utterly mesmerizing .... In alternating sections, told in first person for Mary and third for Holmes, the unraveling of long-buried and terrifying memories also unwinds a skein of wonderful historical texture.... A highlight in an altogether outstanding series."--Booklist, starred review

"A humdinger of a plot ... plus pulsating ddescriptions of San Francisco's tent cities, looters, and flattened Chinatown in the quake's aftermath."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

This is the big mystery of what happened to Mary's Family?.......2007-10-08

Anyone who has read a few of these mysteries knew that eventually King would get to the mystery that has haunted Russell since childhood: "What happened to cause the car accident that killed her parents and brother?"
Any reader of a mystery series knew that this "death by auto accident" angle had to play a role later on. The problem is, after delving through Chinatown, Feng shui, and investigation by San Francisco's favorite Dashiell Hammett, you end up sighing, "Is this it??"
To say I was disappointed is putting it mildly. The book is still competently written and has the interesting leads of Mary Russell and a human Sherlock Holmes to make this a decent time waster; however considering the quality of some of the other entries this really seems to be a series that is starting to run out of steam.

It's a Pleasure.......2007-08-23

What a pleasure! I read these novels over and over, and continue enjoying them. The characters become friends, and I care what happens to them. The stories are interesting, and the backgrounds well-evoked. What more could a reader ask for?

I love this author........2007-04-04

I have had such a hard time finding an author that I consistently like to follow. I have been thrilled that her novels are clean-cut, exciting adventure and historically interesting.

Engrossing, especially via audio!.......2007-03-12

I'm a huge fan of this series, I've read them all multiple times. I haven't read any other Laurie King novels, I guess because I don't want to spoil the enthusiasm I have for this series. Each one is well researched and well written, and I especially loved getting some perspective from Holmes in this one. This was the first one I got in audio and I've already listened to it twice. I think the reader is excellent, does a great job setting a style and tone for each character. I wish she had read all the novels, I'd snap them up in a heartbeat. I typically donate audiobooks to the local library after I listen to them, but I just can't seem to part with this one. Hope King will continue the series in the near future. I love escaping into the world of Russel & Holmes.

Best of Breed........2007-02-15

Great Books of the Western World, move over on your shelf and make room for one more.

I think this may very well be the greatest mystery/suspense novel I have ever read, and I've read many hundreds of them, as it's my favorite genre among the many that I do read.

But I don't expect you merely to take my word for it. Let me count the reasons why:
Any great book of fiction must meet the following criteria, in my opinion--
1. Be character driven rather than plot driven, filled with believable and fascinating characters.
2. Be written by an author who is not afraid to use words beautifully, in a powerful and provocative manner.
3. Contain an actual story, that is, a tale of change wrought within and/or upon a major character, with a series of miniclimaxes leading up to the ultimate climax.
4. Provide a spiritual, mental, and yes even physical impact upon the reader.
5. Be fully capable of standing alone, without reference to any series of which it is a part, and also provide delight and relevance for readers who are aware of other books in the same series, if there is a series.

'Locked Rooms' more than meets these standards. It sets new ones.

Mary Russel, young wife of an older Sherlock Holmes, at long last visits San Francisco, which she has not seen since she fled shortly after the death of her parents and only sibling when she was age 14.

This being a mystery novel, it should be no surprise [and therefore does not qualify as a spoiler] to learn that the tragedy was no accident, although it takes a fair while for Mary to figure this out, since she has been blocking many of her memories from that era. There is no such delay for Holmes himself, though he refrains from imposing his quicker realization onto his bewildered wife.

The plot is simple in one sense, in that it involves working out the details of whodunit, and why. But it is also extremely complex in another way, because the events were rather long ago, the trail stone cold, and the principal villain so cloaked in various sorts of guise and disguise that his or her identity is almost impossible for Mary to acknowledge for some long while.

Local color, Asian philosophy, numerous 'herrings' of various hues including red and a sort of 'pink,' and the presence of a person from so-called real life, a tubercular Dashiel Hammet, plus a San Francisco version of the Baker Street Irregulars, all conspire to lift this above even the highest reaches of the other books in the series. Laurie R. King just keeps getting better, especially in the Mary Russel tales, and the last three or four books among them have lifted her clearly out of the realm of mere genre [which she was never really in to begin with] and into the realm of literature.

All that's left for us possibly to hope for is that King now find some excuse to take Kate Martinelli, the heroine of her other major series, to London, which will bring everything full circle and allow us to start all over again.

We should be so lucky.

The New York Trilogy: City of Glass; Ghosts; The Locked Room (Contemporary American Fiction Series)

Average customer rating:

"The question is the story itself, and whether or not it means something is not for the story to tell."
Was not impressed
Two extraordinary short novels and an exercise by a supreme storyteller
exceptional
Good? Yes. Engaging? that's a different question...

The New York Trilogy: City of Glass; Ghosts; The Locked Room (Contemporary American Fiction Series)
Paul Auster
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Brooklyn Follies: A Novel
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Leviathan (Contemporary American Fiction)

ASIN: 0140131558

Book Description

Paul Auster's signature work, The New York Trilogy, consists of three interlocking novels: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room—haunting and mysterious tales that move at the breathless pace of a thriller.

Customer Reviews:

"The question is the story itself, and whether or not it means something is not for the story to tell." .......2007-06-13

"He had always imagined that the key to good detective work was a close observation of details. The more accurate the scrutiny, the more successful the results. The implication was that human behavior could be understood, that beneath the infinite façade of gestures, tics, and silences, there was finally a coherence, an order, a source of motivation."

Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy," consisting of the novellas "City of Glass," "Ghosts," and "The Locked Room," is an intriguing blend of post-modern fiction, metaphysical philosophy, and detective novels. Through his reliance on the themes and structure of pulp/noir mysteries, Auster delves deeply into questions regarding identity, purpose, obsession, what is real, and examines the often tenuous grip that most people have on their sanity. His exploration is quite compelling and makes for a fascinating read, but it is unfortunate that the quality of the novellas is slightly uneven. The first, "City of Glass," is far too impenetrable and abstruse to be much more than frustrating. While it is clear that its protagonist, Quinn, is desperate to shed his identity in order to escape from the painful loss that has left him paralyzed, it is unclear why he becomes so obsessed with the case that he takes on after doing so. "Ghosts" is a marked improvement, but it is only in the final novella, "The Locked Room," that this trilogy really comes to life. "The Locked Room" is eloquent where its predecessors are vague, pointed when the others are intentionally blurry, and poignant rather than murky. Auster is certainly a great writer, and I will be interested to read more of his works, but "The New York Trilogy" requires a willingness to stick with it in order to get to its heart. But I recommend hanging in there, because that final novella is a true gem, and makes the ride worth your while.

Here's the grade breakdown: "City of Glass": C+, "Ghosts": B, "The Locked Room": A
Average grade: B

Was not impressed.......2007-05-20

I read this book because I loved Paul Aster's Brooklyn Follies. This compilation of 3 short stories may have well been written by a completely different author. They are short detective stories that are slightly intertwined. I did not enjoy this book and do not recommend it.

Two extraordinary short novels and an exercise by a supreme storyteller .......2007-02-08

I do not see this work the way Auster constructed it. To me it is not a 'trilogy' even though there are overlapping themes, and incidents. I see it as a collection of separate pieces. The first and the third are first-rate works of fiction . They are novels which are searches for self. They are -Multiple- identity -mysteries which illustrate Auster's way of seeing life and the world, as unending chance and surprise.
Perhaps the best summary of the Auster credo comes somewhere in the middle of 'The Locked Room' The narrator- best friend of Fanshawe meditates as follows.
" We all want to be told stories and we listen to them in the same way we did when we were young. We imagine the real story inside the words, and to do this we substitute ourselves for the person in the story, pretending that we can understand him because we understand ourselves. This is a deception.We exist for ourselves, perhaps, and at times we even have a glimmer of who we are, but in the end we can never be sure, and as our lives go on, we become more and more opaque to ourselves, more and more aware of our own incoherence. No one can cross the boundary into another-for the simple reason that no one can gain access to himself."
Auster is a supreme storyteller. In these works there are stories within stories of incredible power and beauty. In the first book there is a small story of a mother in the Shoah carrying a baby for whom she at last has the satisfaction of attaining and giving milk. The baby has been dead for days. In the concluding work of the Trilogy Auster tells the story of Lorenzo da Ponte whose life he describes as five or six distinct lives, illustrating a principle of Auster's fiction i.e. we can never know for certain where the story of the life is going to next.
I may not agree with Auster's philosophy of life but find him one of the supreme storytellers writing today . I pick up his work and I want to read and read and read.

exceptional.......2006-11-02

"The New York Trilogy", a volume containing three separate novellas: "The City of Glass", "Ghosts" and " The Locked Room", is an intriguing example of the author's game with the readers and, perhaps, with himself. The motif common for all three stories in the mystery, the solution of which is pursued by the main character, and the place of action, New York City (I do not agree with one of the reviewers who said New York could be here any other urban environment as well; certainly it could not be any European city, NYC gives these stories the distinct character and for anyone who has walked the streets through which the characters wander, it is a setting unmistakable for any other; The City's atmosphere hangs over the characters like a cloud).

"The City of Glass" features Quinn, a solitary man, living quietly after the death of his wife and son, and writing detective stories under a pseudonym. One night, Quinn receives a mysterious phone call from a man demanding the services of a private detective, Paul Auster... Although it is clearly a wrong number, Quinn decides to pretend to be Auster and take the challenge, changing his life forever.

A complete change of life circumstances is also a fate of the protagonist of a second (and the shortest) novella "Ghosts". Blue, who is a professional private detective, receives a task from the disguised client, White, to watch Black. The trouble is, Black never does anything interesting except reading or writing, and bored Blue tries to find out, where the real secret of this investigation lies.

In the last novella "The Locked Room", the main character is involved in the publication of the works of his missing childhood friend, Fanshawe. The books are a great success, he marries Fanshawe's wife and he assumes Fanshawe's identity, happily at the beginning...

These novellas are not, as has been pointed out by many reviewers before me, typical mysteries, where clues lead to conclusions and the reader may amuse himself with finding a correct answer. They are, on one hand, explorations of the soul, of the unknown in us, and, on the other hand, and taken together, a postmodern riddle, with literary jokes, cultural clues. They can be read on various levels, which is what really makes them interesting. For somebody, who expects a mystery story from the beginning to the end this book would be a disappointment, However, it is rewarding for the reader interested in reading itself (sounds absurd, I know, but this may be the truth - books play an enormous role in all the novellas). The introduction of Auster, as a detective, but really a writer in the first story, as opposed to Quinn, the writer, who has to become the detective, is only one of the twists here. The exercise with giving the characters the name of the colors (after all, what, if not "real" names make the reader think of the book characters as real? And are the color names unreal? Such names are common enough...) - is another.

By the way, has anyone been lured into drawing Quinn's walk on the street grid of Manhattan?

Good? Yes. Engaging? that's a different question..........2006-08-19

"The New York Trilogy", by celebrated author Paul Auster, is made up of 3, somewhat interlinked, long stories which were originately published separately at various times around 1985-86.
There is no doubt that Paul Auster is a terrific writer so I won't even get into that aspect of the book.
Let's get down to what's really important by trying to pinpoint the subject matter, i.e., what "the new york trilogy" is really about: in a sense, it's a mystery, in the true sense of the word, because even in the end many questions (most, I dare say) are left unanswered, many stones unturned and many cues are simply left hanging in the air.
The NYT has been described as metaphysical detective fiction and the description might in fact prove apt: each of the 3 stories follows the investigations of one man which always turn into an obsession, making the man completely lose touch with the reality. The NYT is thus much about mental processes, we see each of the 3 main chracters gradually become so absorbed by their quest that they lose all sense of proportion and stop thinking like the rest of us.
It's also a novel about writing because writing, depicted as the greatest obsession of all, always plays a role in the stories.
There is also a definite surreal element in most stories and, quite often, they reminded me of Dino Buzzati's short stories.
The author is obviously very pleased with himself, playing with his own name (much like B.E. Ellis does in his recent "Lunar Park") and toying with the other character's names (which pop up in different stories, alluding to the possibility of a strong link between them all).
Did I like the book? As much as it's clever and well-written, it leaves you with a sense of un-completeness, too much stuff remains only vaguely hinted at (I was never one to fall for open-endings. Plus, everything is open here, much more than necessary) and in the ends, the whole thing sound more like an elaborate intellectual game that engaging fiction. Thus, I give the novel 3 stars although this is in no way diminishes my appreciation of the author's talent.

Average customer rating:

Well-Executed Procedural
"The mystery form is like gymnastic equipment
a Stockholm-based circa 1970 crime story; pretty decent read
Outdated
Great

The Locked Room
Maj Sjowall , and Per Wahloo
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

German | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Police Procedurals | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679742220
Release Date: 1992-12-01

Book Description

A woman robs a bank. A corpse is found shot through the heart in a room locked from within--no firearm in sight. To the eerily intuitive Inspector Martin Beck, these seemingly disparate cases are facets of the same puzzle, and solving it is of vital importance. Only by finding our what happened in the locked room can Beck--haunted by a near-fatal bullet wound and the demise of a soulless marriage--escape from an airtight prison of his own.

From its classic premise, The Locked Room accelerates into an engrossing novel of the mind. Exploring the ramifications of egotism and intellect, luck and accident, and set against the backdrop of the inspired deductions and monstrous errors of Martin Beck and the Stockholm Homicide Squad, this tour de force of detection bears the unmistakable substance and gravity of real life.

Customer Reviews:

Well-Executed Procedural.......2007-10-06

This is a classic, step-by-step police procedural which holds the reader's interest throughout. Martin Beck is a well-developed character, as are the other police and the fascinating characters who flit in and out of this novel. The authors don't waste words, nor do they lead one on wild goose chases. They often paint the police as Keystone Kops and they can't resist getting their little socialist digs in wherever possible. I found this off-putting, but only mildly so. All in all, a good piece of work.

"The mystery form is like gymnastic equipment.......2007-01-13

you can grasp hold of it and show off what you can do." Mickey Friedman

There is no mystery formula more traditional than the locked door mystery. It is almost as old as the genre itself. So, when an author(s) writes a book in which the central plot device is a murder committed in a locked room it can best be judged not for originality but for the panache (or lack thereof) with which it is carried off. Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall get high marks for performance in "The Locked Room".

"The Locked Room", published in Sweden in 1972 and in the U.S. in 1973 was the eighth in a series of ten Martin Beck mysteries written by the Swedish, husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. The plot and structure of the four Beck mysteries I've read to date do not deviate from the standard format found in any well-written police procedural. In fact, and as noted, this plot seems to pay homage to police or detective procedurals generally. What sets the Beck mysteries apart is their location and character development. Naturally enough, each book is a small window into Swedish life and culture in the 1960s and 1970s when the books were written. Further, as the series develops the character of Beck and his colleagues evolve and the reader slowly obtains a real feel for Beck and his fellow police officers. At the same time the characters, especially Beck, remain far from predictable. However, they are already fully formed in the authors' minds and for that reason I suggest reading these books in order. (Unfortunately, although Vintage Crime/Black Lizard has republished some in this series a few of the books are currently out of print.)

In "The Locked Room" Inspector Martin Beck has just returned from an extended leave while he recovered from gunshot wounds. (The shooting takes place in The Abominable Man) and is tasked with investigating the death of a man found dead in a locked room. At the same time, the rest of his squad are investigating a bank robbery in which a masked, robber has managed to shoot and kill one of the bank's customers. The investigations are, or appear to be, unrelated and the rest of the book is devoted to the parallel investigations.

One of the pleasures of reading these Martin Beck stories is the way in which the reader sees the process of the investigation. There are no Sherlock Holmes-like flashes of genius. Rather, we see how Beck and his colleagues struggle (sometimes comically, sometimes incompetently) to put together the jigsaw puzzle of a crime. At the same time we catch glimpses of Beck's personal life and the lives of his fellow detectives.

Like a good gymnast "The Locked Room" succeeds is showcasing how well Sjowall and Wahloo can work within a tried and true formula. The ending, which I found a bit surprising and thought-provoking, was more than satisfying if more than a bit ironic. Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

a Stockholm-based circa 1970 crime story; pretty decent read.......2004-01-13

'The Locked Room' is a rather curious book which seems to be more of a statement about the human condition in Sweden during the late 1960s rather than crime story. The authors are clearly a bit left wing and *extremely* critical of their country. Strange, and all this anger about the Swedish social condition does get tiresome, but is works.

As for the story, two rather unusual crimes (a locked room murder first viewed as a suicide) and a bank robbery/murder baffle the Stockholm police force. But as the story unfolds we understand these two incidents are related. The conclusion is surprising and *very* cynical.

My only complaint with the book is that it has a dated feel to it, and the prose (or translation?) is a bit flat. For example during the bank robbery the robber says "hands up!" and the teller says "you'll never get away with it!". Not very original, eh?

Bottom line: a curious but forgotten mystery novel. Not worth seeking out but certainly an interesting diversion.

Outdated.......2003-04-20

Detective Martin Beck is back at work after a near-fatal event at work. A team of colleagues is attempting to solve a series of bank robberies that they are convinced are related. Beck is in the process of solving another case. His work and conclusions are more intriguing than that of the others and finally solved but not prosecuted. All crimes eventually can be all tied together even though they are not officially solved. The crimes are set in the Stockholm of the 70ies and integrated in Sweden's social problems of that era.

While I was expecting a masterpiece along the lines of Henning Mankell's criminal investigator Wallander this book did certainly not live up to my expectations. The stories are very fragmented, the sudden shifts from one story to the other are deliberate but destructive to the reader. I did not get hooked onto the book at all - because of its fragmentation it totally lacks suspense. It is hard to relate nowadays to the social problems of the time and they seem to overshadow the story lines in many instances. I concluded for myself that I could not get interested because of too many contemporary references, which will not make this mystery a classic of its genre. While Martin Beck fills the role of an interesting inspector he is pushed to far into the background even though he is supposed to be the novel's hero.

Great.......2002-09-28

The seventh Martin Beck novel. Recovering from his misadventures in "The Abominable Man", Beck takes up a seemingly unsolvable case: a friendless, elderly miser, shot one time in the head in a one-bedroom apartment, with locked doors and locked windows, and no gun in sight. Meanwhile, his colleagues are investigating the high-profile shooting of a security guard during a daring bank robbery conducted, apparently, by a beautiful blonde woman.

Book Description

The body's inside, and the room is sealed! Who did it, and how? Martin H. Greenberg, the contemporary "Dean of Anthologies," and editor of over 50 mystery story collections in print, and Rosalind M. Greenberg have teamed with Dercum Audio to produce an unprecedented collection of contemporary mystery fiction audio books. This landmark series comprises approximately 16 volumes; each presenting the editor's choice of the best mystery and detection stories by theme. These 8 classic locked room mysteries include The Exact Opposite by Erle Stanley Gardner; Vanishing Act by Bill Pronzini and Michael Kurland; The Problem of Cell 13 by Jacques Futrelle; His Heart Could Break by Craig Rice.

The New York Trilogy: City of Glass/ Ghosts/ the Locked Room

Average customer rating:

The New York Trilogy: City of Glass/ Ghosts/ the Locked Room
Paul Auster
Manufacturer: Penguin USA (P)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Tantalizing Locked Room Mysteries
Isaac Asimov
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0802706800

Locked Rooms Open Doors:: Diaries And Letters Of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1933-1935 (A Harvest Book)

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Locked Rooms Open Doors:: Diaries And Letters Of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1933-1935 (A Harvest Book)
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
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Book Description

A moving volume that reveals how the Lindberghs increasingly found themselves in the spotlight-a bittersweet record of achievements and hardships. Introduction by the Author; Index; photographs. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Locked Room Puzzles (Academy Mystery Novellas, Vol 3)

Average customer rating:

A Fun Collection-- Where Are Volumes One and Two??

Locked Room Puzzles (Academy Mystery Novellas, Vol 3)
Martin Harry Greenberg , and Bill Pronzini
Manufacturer: Academy Chicago Publishers
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Customer Reviews:

A Fun Collection-- Where Are Volumes One and Two??.......2005-11-16

Any mystery fan will enjoy these well-selected locked room yarns. It's like a little box of bonbons-- none too long, all amusing and well-plotted, all with a nice twist. I hope to trip over the previous volumes.

Merrivale Holds the Key: Two Classic Locked-Room Mysteries : The Plague Court Murders/the Red Widow Murders (Library of Crime Classics)

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Introducing H.M.

Merrivale Holds the Key: Two Classic Locked-Room Mysteries : The Plague Court Murders/the Red Widow Murders (Library of Crime Classics)
Carter Dickson
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ASIN: 1558820272

Customer Reviews:

Introducing H.M........2006-12-11

The Plague Court Murders (1934) and The Red Widow Murders (1935) are two of the first, and best, mysteries featuring John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson's detective Sir Henry Merrivale. In the first, a cynical promoter of séances is brutally murdered while in a locked room, and a legendary local ghost is seemingly the only suspect. In the second, a young man agrees to spend the night in a haunted room, and when the room is unlocked after two hours he is dead of no apparent cause, and had been for more than an hour--though he had seemingly answered calls from his friends waiting outside the room during that time. The mysteries baffle everyone, including especially the readers--no detective fiction writer ever produced mysteries that, while being fair in the presentation of clues, were harder to figure out--but H.M. is always equal to the challenge.

While in some of his later (postwar) appearances H.M. became a more comic figure, given to tantrums and buffoonery, this tendency was as yet under control in these works, which established the character's well-deserved reputation as one of the greatest literary detectives of the so-called Golden Age of mysteries. His introduction in Plague Court Murders is classic. The "Maestro" welcomes old friends and colleagues who he worked alongside as espionage agents during the "Great War" into his shabby Whitehall office, unapologetically drinking brandy and smoking cigars while at work, and in his inimitable cranky, intimidating style, begins to get to the bottom of gruesome, baffling, seemingly supernatural crimes.

But there is a real sense of sadness as well as fun about H.M., whose loud antics thinly veil his regret over the deaths and disappointment his cases invariably bring to light, and his keen, watchful intelligence--he is like a poker player (and H.M. is mentioned off-handedly as being a fine one) whose bluster and jokes are intended to distract his opponents and observers from figuring out what he is really thinking and planning. One can readily see how H.M. could have been a formidable intelligence officer (where deception is so critical) as well as a masterful detective. But what really sets him apart from the Holmeses and Queens and Wolfes is perhaps that he seems immensely more sheer fun to spend time with. At one point in The Red Widow Murders (Chapter 11) H.M. insists that his "Watson" spend a late night with him at home, drinking whiskey and coffee, conversing interestingly and intelligently but rarely to the point, and playing board games ("what looked like children's pursuits") until the sun comes up. There likely has never been another fictional detective as amusing, interesting, and impressive, and he was never more so then in these two classic novels.

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