<p> <span>This novel begins with Robert Englefield, a young Englishman, taking on a job with a vessel sailing for northern Africa. Once there, Englefield is placed in the position of running the store through which the captain sells and trades his goods. As Englefield spends more and more time at this outpost on the African coast, he hears stories a legendary mine in the interior of Africa where the priests capture unwary travelers and blind them to prevent escape. Purely out of curiousity, Englefield finally decides to go looking for this mine in spite of the obvious dangers presented to a white man traveling in the rural African interior. Once Englefield departs and inevitably runs into trouble, the story finally takes on some suspense and unpredictability.</span></p>
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<p> <span>All the Dr. Thorndyke books are outstanding. This one is no exception. In this installment, the action centers on one Dr. Humphrey Jardine, who is the narrator of the story, and who himself is the focus of several strange events. Jardine’s troubles begin with a casual walk, where he comes across the body of a man and runs to fetch the police, only to come back and find that the dead man has disappeared. The police can find no trace that the man was ever there, so Jardine takes it upon himself to examine the scene for clues. His findings lead him into a very strange adventure which can only be solved with the technical expertise of Dr. Thorndyke, but not before Jardine finds his life in danger, and not just once.</span></p>
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<p> <span>This is a delightful Thorndyke mystery full of suspicious happenings, like the ugly human head found in a box checked at a railway station cloakroom. Other peculiar things are afoot too. A rich American gentleman has come to London to make a claim for an earldom, based on some far-fetched „evidence.” His lawyers seem particularly unsavory. And there’s been a daring robbery of precious platinum, with a British vessel somehow implicated. The plot evolves around all these suspicious goings-on. It takes the clever Dr. Thorndyke to discover how they interrelate. The good doctor must solve these seemingly unrelated cases using his usual bag of forensic tricks and a few new ones for good measure. The crooks involved are unusually clever, but as usual, justice is served when... Dr. Thorndyke Intervenes!</span></p>
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<p> <span>This little novel is a total departure from the Dr. Thorndyke mysteries, the classic British detective novels that made Freeman’s reputation. The heroine is a perfectly proper but adventurous young woman named Phyllis, who takes over her cousin Charlie’s chambers in Clifford Inn. The presence of some of Charlie’s clothes in the closet gives her the idea of dressing as a man for a fancy dress ball. Unfortunately, Phyllis looks just like the charming Charlie when wearing his clothes, and this gets her into some difficulties, because Charlie is a bit of a scalawag. Phyllis as Phil gets into fights, performs heroic acts and falls in love with a man who thinks she’s just his pal. Her adventures are tremendous fun. From impersonating a man to discovering mysterious trap doors, „Flighty Phyllis” is an entertaining glimpse at the times and trials of a wayward woman.</span></p>
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<p> <span>Dr. Thorndyke is the CSI of his day. Most of the book is taken up with the account of how an innocent man gets himself thoroughly entangled in what looks like the certainty that he will be hanged, either for the death of a man he saw only once, or amazingly, for his own death! But, of course, Dr. Thorndyke is able to extricate him from this awful situation and triumph yet again. This is the amazing story of a polite, artistic gentleman who, by a series of mistakes, accidents, bad decisions and bad luck finds himself accused of two murders and a fraud. One of the murder victims is himself! No one but Dr. Thorndyke could possible clear up the confusion.</span></p>
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<p> <span>John Gillum arrives in London from Australia apparently a wealthy man and then proceeds to cheerfully gamble his entire fortune away. During this period he cultivates the friendship of Mortimer, the bank official after meeting him at the scene of a murder near the bank. He mentions in conversation that he felt suicide was a very understandable option to someone who had lost everything. When Gillum’s body is found, the inquest duly returns a verdict of suicide and blackmail is suspected of being a contributory factor. However Gillum’s cousin is so convinced that he would never have killed himself, he engages Thorndyke to try to find the blackmailers and bring all the issues to light. The problem is, no one knows who the blackmailers are or even what the man was being blackmailed for.</span></p>
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<p> <span>„The Penrose Mystery”, fist published in 1936, is definitely up to the high standard of the wonderful Dr. Thorndyke series. Penrose is an eccentric old man in possession of some dazzling gems, which he won’t insure. When Dr. Thorndyke is alerted to a burglary at his house, a scrap of paper is found with the word ‘lobster’ on it along with two Latin words. Meanwhile, Penrose has fled in panic after a car accident. The police believe he’s gone into hiding to avoid a manslaughter charge after a hit-and-run accident. Finding him is a forlorn hope, there’s so little to go on. But Thorndyke has a way of seeing significance in the merest bits of dirt inside a tire or oddments in a pocket... Polton, Dr. Thorndyke’s lovable lab assistant, has an important presence in the plot, less this time for his remarkable technical skills than for his fondness for fixing antique clocks.</span></p>
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<p> <span>Mr. Pottermack, wrongly convicted for forgery of checks, has escaped from jail, made his fortune in the US and come back to England to find his fiance. The only one who is cleverer than Mr. Pottermack is Freeman’s detective, Dr. Thorndyke. In this novel, the sympathetic, engaging and enterprising Mr. Pottermack commits the perfect crime, only to discover that a perfect crime is the last thing in the world he wants. Then Mr. Pottermack comes up against the legendary Dr. John Thorndyke, physician and lawyer, the dean of scientific detection, who seems to know far too much about what Mr. Pottermack did on a night when there was nobody around to see him. Will Dr. Thorndyke celebrate another triumph? Or will Mr. Pottermack avoid detection and finally find happiness?</span></p>
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