<p> <span>Helen Vardon narrates her own story and one in which Dr. Thorndyke barely features until the final chapters. Helen Vardon contracts to a marriage without full knowledge of the circumstances regarding her father’s financial status. This leads to a dastardly trail of intrigue and deception and ends in murder. Dr. Thorndyke appears at the eleventh hour but does he save the day? Dr. Thornedyke is left to piece together the clues in this enticing mystery. This novel is a departure from the previous Dr. Thornedyke mysteries in narrator choice, form, and eventual resolution, with much less of the medical and scientific reasoning of prior volumes.</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>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>Angelina Frood, a striking young ex-actress, has gone missing and her new friend Dr. Strangeways, a good-hearted young doctor and the narrator of the story, is determined to find out what has happened and along the way enlists the assistance of Dr. Thorndyke. The local police Sergeant is hot on the trail, as items of clothing and jewellery belonging to Angelina are discovered. There’s serious trouble ahead, but fortunately Dr. Thorndyke, the great medico-legal expert, will take a keen interest in the young woman’s troubles, through the championship of Dr. Strangeways. This novel deals with some very modern themes: domestic violence, gender inequalities, drug addiction – and advanced methods of forensic science as practiced by Dr. Thorndyke.</span></p>
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<p> <span>R. Austin Freeman’s character Dr. Thorndyke is considered the first modern forensic scientist in literature. This is one of the oddities of detective fiction. The first part of this story is an „autobiography” of Thorrndyke’s lab assistant Polton. Polton, Dr. Thorndyke’s lab assistant and a servant has graced every Thorndyke mystery with his mechanical ingenuity, his sumptuous meals and teas, and his crinkly smile. The second part is a mystery tale, which builds on some of the characters we first saw in the earlier portion. Polton and Dr. Thorndyke faced with a mystery involving a mysterious fire in a Soho house filled with supposedly inflammable objects and a body charred beyond recognition by the fire. Polton’s understanding of the mechanisms of clocks leads to a breakthrough in the case.</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>„The Eye of Osiris”, published in 1911, was the second of R. Austin Freeman’s many Dr. Thorndyke mystery novels. Here the great expert in medical jurisprudence will encounter the mysteries of ancient Egypt – without ever leaving London. The cast of characters is rich in Egyptologists. A wealthy old man, John Bellingham, collector of Egyptian antiquities, has disappeared without a trace. His brother is also an Egyptologist, as is his niece and the lawyer who executed his will. Circumstances strongly suggest that the old man is dead, and innocent people may be accused of murder. Happily Dr. Thorndyke gets involved quite by chance. The plot is tremendously clever, and the denouement a total surprise. The great strength of the novel lies in the plotting which is ingenious enough and complicated enough to satisfy any fan of the puzzle-style of mystery story.</span></p>
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