“All have the merit of sustaining the reader’s interest up to an unexpected conclusion.”
+ The Times [London] Lit Sup p442 Jl 8 ’20 50w
POST, MELVILLE DAVISSON. Sleuth of St James’s square. *$2 (3c) Appleton
20–18613
A book of mystery stories. There are sixteen in all, and in each of them Sir Henry Marquis, chief of the Criminal investigation department of Scotland yard, figures. He is not the Sherlock Holmes type of detective, for mystery and solution seem to run side by side, instead of being spread out like a pattern before him. Some of the tales Sir Henry reads from the diary of an ancestor. The titles are: The thing on the hearth; The reward; The lost lady; The cambered foot; The man in the green hat; The wrong sign; The fortune teller; The hole in the mahogany panel; The end of the road; The last adventure; American horses; The spread rails; The pumpkin coach; The yellow flower; A satire of the sea; The house by the loch. Many of the tales journey far afield from St James’s square for their setting. Some have already appeared in short story form in popular magazines.
+ Booklist 17:160 Ja ’21
“The stories are short, piquant and cleverly maneuvered, though the mechanism which moves the puppets is sometimes a bit too evident and there is great lack of originality in the gestures made by them either when they pause or start up again.” N. H. D.
+ − Boston Transcript p6 N 24 ’20 500w
“They are not only unusual in construction; they are very well written, and with but few exceptions, close with a twist which will surprise even the skilled and habitual reader.”