Publisher's Weekly
These whimsical short stories, first seen in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine , center around London solicitor Jonas Pickett, who sets up a modest practice in the small resort town of Shackleton-on-Sea so as not to rusticate in retirement. The sleepy village, not at all what he expects, abounds in crime--some of it lighthearted, some serious--and Jonas is soon in the middle of it. With shrewdness and humor, he deals with the eccentrics, such as Farmer Maggs with his prize bull in ''Black Bob'' and the fortune-telling Gypsy Queen and her band whose caravans, parked legally on council land, spoil the view from the manor house in ''Vivat Regina.'' In ''The Admiral,'' an old naval officer gets involved with a circus and a devilish set of twins, while the reclusive Dr. Rainey dies mysteriously in his locked house in ''The Bird of Dawning.'' Though the characters may be two-dimensional and the stories of uneven quality, this collection, overall, delights by virtue of Gilbert's fanciful plotting.