The Problem of the Spiteful Spiritualist: A Charles Dodgson/Arthur Conan Doyle Mystery

The unlikely detective duo of Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and Arthur Conan Doyle are on the case again (after The Problem of the Missing Miss). It's 1885 and Dodgson, accepting the young Doyle's invitation to visit his home in the English town of Portsmouth, arrives just after the death of one Captain Jethro Arkwright. Everyone believes that the captain, a ""hard-drinking, hard-smoking man with an evil temper and a bad heart,"" died of natural causes. Everyone, that is, except Doyle, who is convinced that foul play was involved. Within a few hours of Dodgson's arrival, an emissary of the Rajah of Rajitpur appears, seeking information about a stolen treasure. A s ance to contact the deceased captain about the treasure's whereabouts is suggested. Mrs. Cavanaugh, Arkwright's housekeeper and nurse to his children, volunteers to act as medium. In the midst of the s ance, she dies, muttering the words ""murder... murder."" Rogow foreshadows Doyle's Sign of Four and echoes Dodgson's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, mixing famous lines from both into her narrative. Her plot is thick with intrigue and sharp portrayals of social hierarchies in Doyle's small town (""where everyone had a place: the master and mistress, the upper servants, the lower servants, each level with duties, rights, and privileges"") putting the book a rank above most period tales. Above all, the felicity with which Rogow brings the two literary greats together makes for an evening's pleasant entertainment. (June)