THE CASE OF THE VANISHING CORPSE

Andrew Craigie, homeless in London in The Case of the Baker Street Irregular (1978), is now ensconced in luxury with his (unmarried) mother, a prominent actress. Mrs. Wiggins, the char who took him in in the earlier book, is now their housekeeper, and so Andrew and Sara (Screamer) Wiggins are free once more to sleuth and scheme together. Here their adult mentor is not Sherlock Holmes but Peter Wyatt, a ""toff"" policeman discriminated against by his jealous superior, exiled by his family and snobbish former friends, and so lonely he seeks out the children's company as well as their capable cooperation on the case that inevitably pops up. A rash of jewel thefts and apparent thefts, a fake organ grinder, a fake Egyptian holy man, a real but elusive corpse, a midnight bareback ride through London's streets, and a cops-and-robbers boat chase on the Thames: all of this, plus Newman's delight in Victorian London and some guest appearances by the likes of GBS and Buffalo Bill, provide ample evidence that Baker Street did not have a monopoly on high-class detection.