The Magic Bullet

• By: Larry Millett
• Format: Hardcover, 247 pg., 6.25 x 9.25 in.
• Publisher: University of Minnesota (2011(
• Usually ships in: 1 to 3 business days
• ISBN: 978-0816674800

A Locked Room Mystery featuring Shadwell Rafferty and Sherlock Holmes

High above St. Paul, Minnesota, on October 1, 1917, a renowned local financier named Artemus Dodge lies facedown on the floor of his armored penthouse sanctuary, a single bullet hole in his head. Thirty stories up, in the city's tallest building, and not a shred of evidence or a sign pointing to anyone having broken into the wealthy man's fortress. It is - to all appearances - an impossible crime.

Enter Shadwell Raffery: Irishman, St. Paul saloonkeeper, sometime detective, and old friend of the celebrated sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Summoned by Louis B. Hill (son of railroad magnate James J. Hill) to investigate, Rafferty descends into a world dominated by greedy tycoons and awash in political intrigue and wartime fearmongering.

Set during a bitter streetcar strike and amid the clandestine activities of a rughless commission charge with enforcing wartime patriotism, The Magic Bullet presents Rafferty's most challenging case. Its gripping conclusion - with a timely assist from Sherlock Holmes - finds both Rafferty and Millett at the top of their games.

Larry Millett was a reporter and architecture critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press for thirty years. He is the author of fifteen books, including five other mystery novels featuring Sherlock Holmes and Shadwell Rafferty.