The Plague of Thieves Affair
A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery #4
by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Forge, $25.99, 256pp
Published: January 2016
This fourth outing in the husband and wife author team’s mystery series finds our two detectives pursuing entirely different cases on their own in the San Francisco of 1896.
Quincannon has been hired to find out who stole the secret formula for a special local beer as well as track down who murdered the brewmaster who created the recipe. It is a quest which will lead him from the brewery to the countryside north of San Francisco and involve theft as well as multiple murders. Meanwhile, Sabina has two cases on her plate; guarding an exhibit of valuable, historic reticules and a missing person’s case involving the mysterious man claiming to be the late Sherlock Holmes. Theft, deception and murder weave through Sabina’s cases as well, and perhaps, the true identity of the man calling himself Sherlock Holmes..
Yet another satisfying read in a delightful series. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon