Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin is the protagonist in this collection of three separate stories. In them, Erasmus uses deductive reasoning and his powers of observation, a la Sherlock Holmes, to penetrate three mysteries which at first blush appear to involve the supernatural. At the same time, matters are not so simple, because Sheffield's backdrop is a fantasy England where supernatural explanations cannot necessarily be ruled out . . . The first episode is not so great--Darwin comes off as only slightly brighter than average. But the episodes which follow are engaging and interesting, well worth the read. Sheffield is a skilled practitioner who holds the reader's attention. I enjoyed the book, but wound up feeling slightly disappointed that Darwin, billed as "arguably the greatest Englishman of the 18th century," is not even more witty and brilliant.