Problem of Evil Editor

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 killer--who 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)