The Master of Mysteries
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“In this exemplary Library of Congress Crime Classics reissue…those seeking quality Sherlock Holmes pastiches in a humorous vein will be well rewarded.”— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Packed with two dozen stories, The Master of Mysteries offers a twentieth-century, mystical twist on the classic consulting detective genre made popular by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. With Astro, the self-proclaimed “seer of secrets,” author Gelett Burgess gives us a detective just as observant and brilliant as Sherlock Holmes—but with feelings.
Astro, the Seer of Secrets, and his lovely assistant, Valeska, sound more like a magic act than a private detection team.
Astro hides his powers of observation and reasoning beneath a turban and a cape, pretending to read palms and consult crystals while in fact keenly observing details that most people—police included—miss. Valeska, his beautiful blonde protégé, assists Astro with his investigations, all the while honing her own skills.
Called upon by believers and skeptics both, they adeptly recover what is missing—a rare Shakespeare folio, a missing husband, a kidnapped child—while also solving actual murders. But it is their burgeoning romance, and their mutual zeal to work pro bono where matters of the heart are at stake, that set this crime-solving duo apart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in book form in 1912, the 24 short stories by humorist Burgess (1866–1951) in this exemplary Library of Congress Crime Classics reissue feature Astro the Seer, whose intellect allows him to make Holmesian deductions. (As editor Leslie S. Klinger notes in his introduction, these tales were "part of a tsunami of Holmes imitators.") Born Astrogon Kerby, Astro learned magic in Cairo before studying at MIT. To support his private physics lab in New York City, Astro "set up in business as palmist, seer, and detective." In one of the volume's high points, "The Stolen Shakespeare," Astro examines the hand of a prospective client and informs the man, accurately, that he attended a popular revue the previous night and was bored. Other memorable cases involve official corruption and kidnapping. The romantic dynamic with his sidekick, Valeska, who contributes significantly to his inquiries, adds an element missing from traditional Holmes-Watson–inspired pairings. Those seeking quality Sherlock Holmes pastiches in a humorous vein will be well rewarded.
