Sexton Blake Bibliography: 1998

SEXTON BLAKE AND THE TIME KILLER
by Anon. (Gwyn Evans)

THE SHADOWS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES · 1998 · Wordsworth Editions Ltd · £2.99

Edited by David Stuart Davies

Illustrator: None

Other content: The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe; The Biter Bit by Wilkie Collins; The Stolen Cigar-Case by Brett Harte; A Princess's Vengeance by C. L. Pirkis; The Absent-Minded Coterie by Robert Barr; The Swedish Match by Anton Chekhov; The Secrets of the Black Brotherhood by Dick Donovan; The Episode of the Diamond Links by Grant Allen; A Clever Capture by Guy Clifford; Nine Points of the Law by E. W. Hornung; The Stir Outside the Cafe Royal by Clarence Rook; The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds by Guy Boothby; The Problem of Dressing Room A by Jacques Futrelle; The Hundred-Thousand-Dollar Robbery by Hesketh Prichard; The Surrey Cattle-Maiming Mystery by Herbert Jenkins; The Ghost at Massingham Mansions by Ernest Bramah; One Possessed by E. W. Hornung; The Great Pearl Mystery by Baroness Orczy

Notes: A glowing spectre of a hound appears on the London Underground, witnessed by Sexton Blake and Tinker. The following morning, the detective receives a visit from Professor Rufus Llewellyn who informs him that a box containing millions of germs has been stolen from his laboratory. The same morning, the newspapers report the disappearance of Lord Lavendale — a sporting peer — and Tom Gunn, a Labour leader. Blake is visited by a man who claims to be the exiled king of the Mediterranean island of Rosario. He wants the detective to help him regain the throne. However, realising that his visitor is in disguise, Blake sets Tinker to follow him. Tinker does so and finds that the so-called king is actually a man named Mike Malone. Furthermore, Malone had invited Lavendale and Gunn to Rosario. After proving that the glowing hound was nothing but an advertising stunt, Blake and his assistant are flown to the island by an airman named Briscoe. There they find the two missing men who, though they've been gone six days, insist that they left London a mere forty-eight hours ago. They are in Rosario to see how money they've invested has been spent to develop the island as a resort to rival Monte Carlo. Their publicity agent, an American named Brian 'Booster' Bruce, seems similarly confused about the passage of time. When Tinker starts to display the same symptoms, Blake discovers that the cause stems from Rosarios famous spring waters. He then investigates Bruce's room and finds in it Professor Llewellyn's stolen bacilli, which gives him the clue that solves the mystery and connects it to the glowing hound ... and the motive of the 'crime' turns out to be far more prosaic than expected!

Trivia: This is a reprint of UNION JACK issue 1,071 THE TIME KILLER (1924), which was the first Blake tale to be penned by Gwyn Evans and was also later narrated in a 13-part radio serial.

Rating: ★★★★☆