In a league of contemporaries (Sherlock Holmes and Craig Kennedy), Dr. John Thorndyke is certainly the dean of the omniscientist sleuth. In these eight adventures he is at his best. Scarcely has he arrived at Little Sundersley but he notes the telltale footprints on the sand, one set made by a short fisherman in thigh boots and the other by a bowlegged and pigeon-toed person carrying a heavy burden on his back; all this helps in saving the life of an innocent butterfly collector. Then you get the sinister inhabitant of lavender Cottage, an art robbery, the blue sequin, the Moabit cipher, the mandarin's pearl, the aluminum dagger and so forth. This is the second volume in the Dr. Thorndyke Series.
