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Rating: 
Summary: A humorous mystery of the highest order.
Review: I think humorous mysteries are wonderful, and know of none better than this. Set in Paris between the wars (what Paul calls Paris's best American period) the Homer Evans mysteries have broad humor and a distinctive wit. Add an inspired selection of funny names, a varied and eccentric cast of characters, word-play of a highly entertaining order (as when one Lvov Kvek is described as "a former colonel in the recent army of the late Czar"), and "Mayhem in B-Flat" is well outfitted for humor. Even the chapter headings are funny. As for the mystery involved, there's hardly anything comparable for bizarre complications and circumstances outside Alice Tilton's (i.e., Phoebe Atwood Taylor's) Leonidas Witherall mysteries and one of her Asey Mayo mysteries, "Spring Harrowing". Even if possible, a plot summary is inadvisable, as aeshtetic merit and mental health might equally suffer. However, a list of the some of the elements of this tale may give an idea of its dizzying effect: the theft of an extremely valuable violin called "The Sinner Without Malice"; corpses that hardly seem to have noticed their own passing; a significant error in a game of checkers; forged fingerprints; a lady baritone; tarantula fights; barratry; thugs known as Dental Jake and Godo the Whack; a fiendishly dangerous new poison; a greasy thumbprint dating back to around the time of the Norman Conquest; a permeable wall; a revolutionary glue; and Hyacinthe Toudoux, medical examiner for the Prefect of Police. Only three of Elliot Paul's Homer Evans mystery titles seem to have been in print in the last thirty-five years or so. That is unfortunate, for Evans and his friends inhabit a distinctive, strange, and funny world. To get there go past "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and Dortmunder country, then hang a right as you pass "Charade", aiming toward "The Last of Sheila". Halfway to "The Thin Man" wave at Tish, enter Paris, and fall down laughing.
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