The Problem of the Evil Editor: A Charles Dodgson/Arthur Conan Doyle Mystery - Hardcover

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Once again Arthur Conan Doyle plays Watson to Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll's Holmes, in a third literate mystery (after The Problem of the Spiteful Spiritualist) featuring this unlikely if appealing duo. One afternoon in February 1886, Dodgson and Doyle visit the Fleet Street office of Samuel Bassett, a mean-spirited children's magazine editor who not only rejects Oscar Wilde's fairy tales and Beatrix Potter's rabbit drawings but appears to have profited from selling copies of the rare first printing of Alice in Wonderland that Carroll insisted go to charity because Tenniel's illustrations weren't properly reproduced. No wonder, then, that someone sticks a knife in Bassett's back when he leaves the office that evening. Meanwhile, mobs of workers are roaming central London in the snow, protesting their unfair wages. Dodgson and Doyle find themselves caught in a riot, and even temporarily detained by the police until Wilde comes to their rescue. The pair have to work fast to find Bassett's killerAwho under cover of the riot has committed a second murder to prevent exposure. The fun here is less in the ponderous plot, with its shortage of suspense and suspects, than in the author's affectionate and accurate portrayal of the prim, stammering Carroll and the young Dr. Doyle, eager to make his literary mark. While the playful tone may be a bit at odds with the murderer's sad and sordid motives, Rogow's sly in-jokes and seamless blend of fact and fiction should delight many. Agent, Cherry Weiner. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never met in real life, but Rogow matches them as companions and sleuths, their relationship supposedly forming the basis for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Dodgson and Doyle may not have the charisma of those two, but they manage perfectly well in this entertaining series. This time the Labour Riots of 1888 are swirling around Fleet Street as Dodgson and Doyle visit the offices of Youth Companion magazine, where the nasty editor, Samuel Bassett, is insulting everyone on his staff. Naturally, Bassett turns up dead, as does one of the magazine's writers. Readers may not need Dodgson and Doyle to solve the crime, and the author's detailed exploration of the homosexual motives behind the murder sometimes get in the way of the action. What Rogow excels at, though, is setting the scene. The class warfare, as rioters spill across wintry London, is both a vivid backdrop and a rich subplot to the main action. An engaging read, especially for Anglophiles. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From his offices in Fleet Street, Samuel Bassett, editor of Youth’s Companion, berates his copy editors, denies heat to his printers, and tosses aspiring writers out on their ears. But when Bassett falls dead at the feet of Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll), these two literary lights from the provinces (The Problem of the Spiteful Spiritualist, 1999, etc.) set off into a London blizzard to find his murderer, since Inspectors Calloway (City of London Police, we have jurisdiction here) and MacRae (Metropolitan Police, thank you very much) fix on Oscar Wilde as the most likely suspect. Fortunately, Bassett’s boyhood chum Nicholas Portman takes charge of the out-of-towners, ferrying them to the offices of Punch, where John Tenniel and George Du Maurier send them off to Tite Street in search of Wilde. They also inspect Bassett’s Baker Street digs for clues, stopping on the way to escort freelance typist Helen Harvey home to Sloane Square. The next day, after visiting the Holbein Street home of Myrna Peterson, widow of the Youth’s Companion copywriter, they venture into Whitechapel to find out why both Bassett and Peterson had tracts on their desks from Toynbee Hall settlement house. Finally, Dodgson summons all concerned to dinner at the Café Royal for a denouement so thumpingly obvious even readers of Alice in Wonderland might have guessed it. As Dodgson and Doyle crisscross London by carriage and coach, the plot lumbers along like an elephant. If The Oxford Companion to English Literature had conjugal relations with a London tourist map, this might be the result. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.