Jeffrey Siger temporarily abandons his Greek crime thrillers to bring us to New York, where an elderly former intelligence agent lives a solitary life, cared for by his housekeeper, a Mrs Baker. The man, known to us only as Michael, lives in a grand townhouse numbered 221. So, we can see the drift. While this isn’t remotely a Sherlockian pastiche, the shadow of the great man hovers in the background. Michael is formidably rich, but rarely ventures beyond his front door step, preferring to observe the passers by in the park beneath his window. One of the park’s regular visitors is a young woman. When it transpires that she was forced by circumstances to part of a complex ring involving precious antiques, their sellers – and their clandestine buyers – Michael decides to come out of retirement. He ponders his decision:

“For so long, I’d taken such great care to maintain a detached existence for myself, a life safely confined to conjecture, reflection, and surmise, far removed from taking part in those human dramas that inexorably draw so many to misfortune, pain, and loss. I’d found my Walden Pond in the park, or so I’d thought.”

Michael rescues the young woman – Angel – and resolves to put an end to the racket which has put her life in danger. Angel was basically homeless, because she discovered the body of her former boss, a man called Carlucci, at the sleazy apartment where she and other girls employed in his racket, lived.

At the centre of the plot are a brother and sister, Dr Marilena Sinclair and Dr Brackett Fielding (one a psychiatrist and the other a psychologist) who have ‘acquired’ a priceless artifact from a deceased woman patient. The woman was the estranged wife of a notorious called Victor Persky mobster and she took the antique to spite him. Now, Persky wants his treasure back, and cares not one jot if Sinclair and Fielding have to die in the process.

The plot has another complication. A young woman called Maria, another courier in Carlucci’s crooked auction business, was allowed to die of a drug overdose in the squalid tenement where the girls lived. Her body was later found in a dumpster. Her brother, Daniel Rudolph, is ex military, and Michael eventually discovers that he was Carlucci’s killer. There is an engaging cast of supporting actors. Housekeeper Mrs Baker is certainly more forthright than the good lady who ran 221B Baker Street, and Michael’s old friend who runs a popular local diner, is a shrewd and resourceful ally, as Michael constructs an elaborate plane to defeat Persky.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable tale, quirky and sharp, although Michael’s ability to disarm and disable gang-bangers and mobster heavies with – literally – a twirl of his cane stretches one’s credulity somewhat. This novel, which looks to be the first of a series called Redacted Man Mysteries, will be published by Severn House on 3rd February.