Inspector Bentwhistle's Last Tango

Drop a born and bred Yorkshireman,retired after twenty five years as Scotland Yard's most respected DetectiveInspector, into the sun baked society of Southern California and you have the stock for this binational bouillabaisse. Add cameo performances of a dozen of his former antagonists,members of London's underground who he had caught atone time or another, come to California to demonstrate their individualtype of larceny. Receipt of an Egyptian mummy which ticks, theft of the entirearticulated skeleton of a Brontosaurus from the museum, bank robbery as aBachelor Dinner, are among them. They come to pick up a few bucks in the 'AmericanColony' but also as a means of saying good-bye and good riddance. Or justpossibly out of respect for the man or even a real liking. (They provide themusic for his last tango.) Mix in the beautiful Arabella, aDuchess by marriage and Queen of all London bunco byher other talents and Bentwhistle's long timeunrequited love. With her arrival the 'Great Game' can continue. Therules being that he would marry her if he could not solve every larceny that iscommitted by her friends. That is the flavoring in the stew between thesecovers.