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

Rogow, Roberta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312209037 ISBN 13: 9780312209032

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2000

Synopsis

In the winter of 1888, Reverend Charles Dodgson of Christ Church at Oxford - better known to the world as author Lewis Carroll - brings to his new found friend Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle to London to introduce him to editors potentially interested in Doyle's writing. Their first stop is the offices of a weekly magazine, Youth's Companion, arriving in time to find the place in an uproar - the staff is upset, the printers in a rage, and the editor is busy violently rejecting the work of up-and-coming Irish writer Oscar Wilde. Dr. Doyle fares no better with the foul-tempered, duplicitous and mean editor - Samuel Bassett and the duo depart.

Shortly thereafter, in full sight of the duo, Bassett is murdered outside of magazine's offices. Due to the heavy snowstorm, neither Dodgson nor Doyle can identify his attacker but they are on hand to hear Bassett's final gasp. With the Labor Riots raging in the streets, and unrest in the air, the police immediately assume that Wilde, a socialist, is responsible and set about trying to find him. But, believing that Wilde is innocent, Dodgson and Doyle, set about to find out the truth behind the vicious attack. In a quest that takes them from the most prestigious literary and art circles in Victorian London to the lowest dives of ill repute, the unlikely duo seek to unmask a killer before he strikes again.

About this title

About the Author

Roberta Rogow has been writing since she could hold a pen. After trying her hand as a folksinger and actress, she became a librarian and works at the Union Public Library in Union, New Jersey. Rogow is the author of The Problem of the Missing Miss and The Problem of the Spiteful Spiritualist, the two previous novels featuring the Dodgson and Doyle team. She lives with her husband Murray in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.

From Kirkus Reviews

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0312209037
• ISBN 13: 9780312209032
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288