The Plague of Thieves Affair

January 11, 2016
One of the ongoing mysteries in Muller and Pronzini's entertaining 1890s-era San Francisco whodunits may be resolved in the series's fourth entry (after 2015's The Body Snatchers Affair). In previous volumes, PIs Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon encountered an eccentric claiming to be Sherlock Holmes. Roland Fairchild, an attorney from Chicago, retains Sabrina to track down the Holmes impersonator, whom he believes to be his cousin Charles, so that Charles's fitness to inherit the family fortune can be evaluated. She also also accepts the duty of guarding an exhibition of famous, and expensive, reticules. Meanwhile, John is on the trail of those responsible for the gruesome murder of a brew master who drowned in a vat of fermenting beer. One suspect apparently takes his own life behind locked doors, but John is convinced that a clever murderer pulled off the seemingly impossible crime. The antics of the man who may be Charles Fairchild add a light touch, although the solutions to the various crimes aren't the authors' most imaginative. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.

Starred review from January 1, 2016
In the fourth installment of the Carpenter and Quincannon series, the late nineteenth-century private detectives are working a couple of cases. John Quincannon, a former Secret Service operative, is looking into the suspicious death of a brewery employee, while Sabina Carpenter, who used to be a detective for the Pinkerton agency, is hot on the trail of Sherlock Holmes. Or, to be more precise, an elusive man who claims he is Holmes (and who stands to inherit a sizable fortune if he can demonstrate that he is not a lunatic). When two top-class writers join forces, the results can be wonderful. Pronzini is best known for his long-running Nameless Detective series; Muller's name is associated primarily with the Sharon McCone series. Both series, like the Carpenter and Quincannon novels, are set in San Francisco; both writers are known for tight plotting and highly detailed character design. A match made in literary heaven, in other words, and their latest collaboration is just splendid.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)