Virginia D. (vldbookworm) -
This book is the fourth of a series, but you don't have to have read the earlier ones
to understand this one.
There isn't really much mystery to it; you pretty much know the villains from the
start; so the interest is more in how Dodgson and Conan Doyle go about solving it
and the depiction of life in Victorian Oxford. The editing got a bit sloppy toward
the end, with big chunks of dialogue essentially repeated from prior chapters.
There weren't too many typos, though.
I was bothered somewhat by the continual references to "Doyle", knowing that all
Quiz Bowl contestants are trained to call him "Conan Doyle", but during the denouement,
he decides to follow the example of some of the Oxonians and use both names.
There is a nice little section of historical notes at the end, explaining which
characters were real and a little bit about them.
to understand this one.
There isn't really much mystery to it; you pretty much know the villains from the
start; so the interest is more in how Dodgson and Conan Doyle go about solving it
and the depiction of life in Victorian Oxford. The editing got a bit sloppy toward
the end, with big chunks of dialogue essentially repeated from prior chapters.
There weren't too many typos, though.
I was bothered somewhat by the continual references to "Doyle", knowing that all
Quiz Bowl contestants are trained to call him "Conan Doyle", but during the denouement,
he decides to follow the example of some of the Oxonians and use both names.
There is a nice little section of historical notes at the end, explaining which
characters were real and a little bit about them.
