A collection of twelve short stories in which the members of the exclusive 'Crimes Club' meet,discuss and investigate crimes that the normal police forces of Europe are unable to solve. The club consists of ten members and includes experts in all aspects of criminology. Three stories stand out,'The Affair of the Orange',in which an orange is cut in half and eaten by two people at the same time. One dies within minutes and the other has no ill-effects at all. The second is 'The House of Evil' which is a empty house with an evil reputation. Several people have died or been taken ill It is the final story, 'The Great Thames Mystery' that interests me most. Not in the tale itself,but in the similarities with another story by a writer somewhat better known. In 1922 Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a Sherlock Holmes story entitled 'The Problem of Thor Bridge'. This came towards the end of Holmes and Watson's career and is far from being one of his best. Now without giving anything away - both this and 'The Great Thames Mystery',which was written some five years later in 1927 are remarkably similar. In both stories a body is found on a bridge (one is stone and the other metal) In both the dead person (one man and the other woman) has been discovered shot through the head.but no weapon has been discovered. In both cases the detective discovers a tiny chip off the edge of the bridge,and that discovery leads to the solving of the crime.These stories are so similar that it leads one to believe that Le Queux,whether consciously or unconsciously copied the main features of Conan Doyle's story into his own. Surely a case for Sherlock Holmes himself to solve. ( )