The dream detective

About the book

The death of a night attendant in the Menzies Museum presents a seemingly impossible problem: the man appears to have suffered a violent attack in rooms that no intruder could have entered. Into this confusion steps Moris Klaw, whose investigative practice includes sleeping where a crime occurred to receive impressions he believes remain there. His daughter Isis assists him, while police officers and other observers must decide how seriously to take his claims. Ten episodes bring the pair into mysteries involving antiquities, music, old houses, and objects burdened with suggestive histories. Rohmer combines detective puzzles with occult speculation, making Klaw's theatrical habits part of the suspense. The reader follows both the search for an explanation and the performance by which Klaw makes others listen.

• Occult investigation
• Skepticism and performance
• Objects and memory

Why read it

Klaw's unusual sleeping ritual gives a distinctive shape to cases built around museum pieces and seemingly impossible violence.

English McKinlay, Stone & Mackenzie edition carrying the 1925 Doubleday, Page copyright