The Problem of the Spiteful Spiritualist - Hardcover

Rogow, Roberta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312205708 ISBN 13: 9780312205706

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1999

Synopsis

In October of 1885, mathematician and Oxford don Charles Dodgson - better known as Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - arrives in Portsmouth to visit a few days with his friend Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle.
An old, retired sea captain recently died of what everyone believed to be natural causes - everyone except his physician, Dr. Doyle. Now his suspicions are delaying the captains funeral and the settling of his estate, placing his family in a precarious position. Shortly after the inquest, an emissary of the Rajah of Rajitpoor arrives at the dead man's door, claiming to have an appointment with the deceased to discuss an important missing treasure stolen decades before from India. With this new mystery and the unanswered questions about the sea captain's death, Mrs. Cavanaugh - the longtime housekeeper for the captain - offers a solution. Claiming to be a spiritualist, she offers to conduct a seance to contact the dead man and get him to reveal the secrets behind his death and the missing treasure.
But no sooner does the seance get under way than the spiritualist dies - with the word "murder" on her lips. Now Dr. Doyle and Mr. Dodgson must resolve the mysteries of the past and present before another mysterious death occurs.

About this title

About the Author

Roberta Rogow is a librarian Union Public Library in Union, New Jersey.

Reviews

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)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A second outing for Dodgson and Doyle (The Problem of the Missing Miss, 1998). The Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), returning to Oxford after a trip along the Channel coast, has been invited to visit Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle and his bride Touie in the town of Southsea. Doyles cantankerous neighbor Captain Jethro Arkwright has just diedof a heart attack, thinks all but Doyle, who wants an autopsy done. Arkwright has left two daughters, Amelia and the much younger Bedelia, along with housekeeper Emma Cavanaugh (keeper of everyones secrets), who proposes a sance at General Draysons house and, before the night is over, also dies of a heart attack. Once again, Dr. Doyle is not convinced. He looks for and finds a much more exotic cause of death. Plus, there are other problems going back to Captain Arkwrights days in India and Bermudaone of them the disappearance of the Rajitpor treasure, long sought by Raja Hahal and his aide. The treasure eventually surfaces, as so do some bizarre discoveries from years back that help illuminate todays strange happenings. Nicely done evocation of time and place, undermined by unconvincing characters, and a fussy string of unlikely plot developments. Sporadically entertaining. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Charles Dodgson, better known as writer Lewis Carroll, and Arthur Conan Doyle made their debut as fictional sleuths in last year's Problem of the Missing Miss. This time Rogow places the pair in Portsmouth, England, where Dodgson has journeyed at Doyle's invitation to read the would-be author's latest stories and (Doyle hopes) help him get published. But Dodgson has barely set his bags down when he and Doyle become embroiled in a murder case. Captain Arkwright, a retired seaman, is found dead; with foul play suspected, Arkwright's mysterious housekeeper suggests a seance, where she will act as medium to contact Arkwright and ask who killed him. But during the seance, the housekeeper keels over dead. Doyle and Dodgson, both present at the event, find themselves engaged in the investigation, which hinges on a fortune in missing jewels. An imaginative, cleverly plotted story with authentic historical details and engaging characters, Rogow's latest is a pleasantly diverting read that will appeal to Anne Perry fans. Emily Melton

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312205708
• ISBN 13: 9780312205706
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 282