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New York: The Vanguard Press. Very Good+ in Very Good- dj. (c.1942). First Edition. Hardcover. [a good sound copy, lightly shelfworn, one-time owner's name plus date & place of purchase written in ink at top of front endpaper; the jacket is scuffed a bit here and there (most notably on the spine panel), and has a quarter-sized chip at the bottom of the rear panel (no loss of text)]. The second of the author's three "Mr. Mycroft" mysteries, among the most highly-regarded of all Sherlock Holmes pastiches; the books' conceit is that Mycroft = Holmes in retirement (with his companion/narrator, Mr. Silchester, being the Dr. Watson equivalent). In this adventure, the pair are transplanted to the very un-Sherlockian locale of Southern California, where they investigate a mystery involving a cryptogram, supernatural phenomena, bacterial murder, and a radioactive meteorite. Preceded by "A Taste for Honey" (1941) and followed by "The Notched Hairpin" (1949). .