REDWULF’S CURSE

Plainly modeled on Hound of the Baskervilles, this new Tom Marlowe Adventure takes the young sleuth-in-training and his capable mentor Dr. Harker out to the tidal bogs of 18th-century East Anglia, where a wealthy friend of the Doctor’s has been rummaging around in an ancient barrow said to be protected by a supernatural guardian. Conveniently enough, the crime-solving pair arrives just after the first of two murders. Priestly folds in plenty of atmosphere, in the form of nightmares, mysterious voices and sightings, gales, heavy fogs, scratched messages on walls and vicious animal attacks—along with a gallery of suspects from smugglers to an eccentric local lord. He wastes it all, however, by having the unremorseful surprise culprit suddenly confess publicly, then fall off her horse and die. A fizzle, compared to the previous episode, Death and the Arrow (2003). (Fiction. 11-13)