This, the second Harry Reese Mystery omnibus, includes the fourth, fifth, and sixth novels in the series, books which feature a pair of zoologically minded Shakespearean scholars, a pretender to the Celtic Revival, the pseudonymous writer of some very heady English poetry, and two of America’s greatest authors of the era—or, at least, their stand-ins.

 A Charm of Powerful Trouble, set in the autumn of 1902, begins with a killing in a faux Chinatown and ends in a séance. Before it’s over, Harry will meet cricket ranchers, vaudeville artistes, white slavers, morality crusaders, circus roustabouts, and wayward Utopians, and frequently become sidetracked by the need to rescue his loved ones from jail, or the clutches of a ruthless tong.

In Fair Play’s a Jewel, Harry learns his secretive wife Emmie is planning a trip to Portland, Maine. There, not surprisingly, he happens upon a corpse. In the course of  solving this case, our heroes will have acquired a knowledge of 17th-century cant, cockney rhyming slang, and the mating habits of the American eel; confronted a snooping Pinkerton of fictional origin; come to terms with a publishing pirate; and waded through a veritable ocean of false identities.

 Posing in Paradise takes place in 1905, when the great Henry James visits Emmie’s hometown to deliver a lecture to the local literati. He is feted in grand style—and so is the Englishman impersonating him. In the meantime, a vacationing Harry has stumbled upon a body marinating in an abandoned canal bed. Then the body vanishes. Twice. These two plots, each sufficiently ludicrous in its own right, coalesce to produce a truly remarkable story, one that dares to answer the age-old question: is it possible for a man to drown in his blancmange?

 Also included are a list of characters and a glossary of period language.

For more information on the series, please visit:  HarryReeseMysteries.com

Keywords:  Humorous comedic parody funny comedy  Humor satire farcical saga cozy mystery historical historic 1900 turn-of-the-century love marriage family life relationship  Nora Shakespeare bawdy Wodehouse  Brooklyn  New York P.G. Upstate railroad travel  fire murder Nick and insurance fraud PG