I may have read this once upon a time in high school, having devoured all the Sherlock Holmes that my library had to offer. It started off unfamiliar but seemed very familiar by the end. Or that could just be that as a genre standard-bearer, elements of this have been lifted and reused so many times I only think I have read it.

In any case, this was a superb locked box mystery yarn. Colorful, if stereotypical and occasionally racist, characters leap from the page and confound our intellect at every turn. I enjoyed the unraveling of the central mystery and its reveal here in the climax and denouement. If you are looking for a good mystery novel, you still can't go wrong reading this one.