The Bughouse Affair

October 29, 2012
Fans of Steve Hockensmith’s Holmes on the Range historicals will welcome this Carpenter and Quincannon novel, billed as the first in a new series from husband-and-wife MWA Grand Masters Muller and Pronzini (Beyond the Grave). In 1891, Sabina Carpenter, one of the original Pinkerton female operatives, the Pink Roses, moved to San Francisco to join former Secret Service agent John Quincannon in establishing the city’s “premier investigative agency.” In 1894, two simultaneous cases preoccupy the pair: a pickpocket is targeting the patrons of the Haight Street Chutes Amusement Park, and six policyholders of the Great Western insurance company have been burglarized. Meanwhile, Quincannon is bemused by press reports that Sherlock Holmes has survived his supposed death and has taken up residence in San Francisco, until the claimant to the master detective’s mantle becomes an unexpected rival. A doubly impossible crime only adds to the enjoyable plot. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary.