Crossover Cover: The Case of the Black Twenty-Two

 

Private detective Anthony Bathurst investigates the theft of three valuable items once belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots, and the murders of both a night watchman at the auction house where they were up for bid and one of the bidders, Laurence P. Stewart. Peter Daventry is asked by his law partner, Linnell, to find a private investigator: “Can’t you do a bit of ‘sleuthing’ on your own account? Sherlock Holmes has had many imitators!” Bathurst tells Inspector Goodall, “Sherlock Holmes has laid it down, Inspector, that in moments of sudden alarm and anxiety, a single woman rushes for her jewel case—a married woman for her baby.” Daventry tells Bathurst, “I know in cases of this kind the Doctor Watson of the business is always a thick-headed sort of arrangement, and I don’t suppose I’m any more brilliant than the majority.” One of the items in Stewart’s collection is “The ancient Crown of the Kings of England—believed to have last graced the head of Charles the First. Mr. Stewart paid a tremendous price for this—and the sale was secret. It was purchased by him from one of the most famous names in England.” Holmes and Watson are referred to as real people. Charles the First’s crown is real, but given the other references, “one of the most famous names in England” is probably Reginald Musgrave, for whom Holmes recovered the crown in “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual.” In fact, the phrase “The ancient Crown of the Kings of England” is taken directly from that story. These connections bring Anthony Bathurst, who appeared in fifty-three novels from 1927 to 1958, into the CU. The date of “Friday, June 10th, 192–” is mentioned, suggesting the year is 1927. In Flynn’s non-series novel Tragedy at Trinket, Bathurst’s nephew Maurice Folliott solves a murder case. 

This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!