The Pyramid of Lead

[very nice clean copy, firm and tight with just a touch of wear at the extremities; jacket a bit scuffed on the front panel, a couple of tiny edge-tears, long vertical scrape to top half of rear panel, minor soiling at spine and rear panel]. The first of three mysteries by this author, all quite uncommon, featuring his character "Prosper Fair," an upper-class Englishman "whose identity is itself a mystery [at least until the end of this first adventure]," who "takes on the role of a detective while he is wandering through the English countryside with his donkey and his dog. He is young, keen-witted, and, you will find, as whimsical and lovable a soul as you will have met in many years of fiction reading." ("Whimsical" seems to have been one of the hallmarks of Atkey's work; his better-known and slightly longer-lived creation was a detective named "Smiler Bunn." And how whimsical is that?) First published in England by Hutchinson, 1924.