Lord Darcy is a most fortunate imitation, flaunting his origins while transcending them. The parallels between Sherlock Holmes of Victorian London and Darcy of Angevin London are played up by Garrett, slipped in as an additional touch for devotees of Conan Doyle's character to enjoy. Darcy has, for example, his own "Watson" in the person of Master Sean O Lochlainn. He has the familiar skills of the nineteenth-century sleuth: the power of first-rate deductive reasoning, moments of insight, the understanding of human psychology that includes the abnormal side of the spectrum so often involved in bizarre crime, a handiness with sword, gun, or fist, the ability to locate cabs and street urchins for message-carrying, and even an intimate knowledge of tobacco ash. But the familiar accouterments may also have the alternate-world twist; Darcy's Meerschaum pipe has a long straight stem, and his "Mycroft" is a cousin...