3.5*
It took longer than average for Gamadge to first appear in this 12th book in the series - so long, in fact, that I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be a stand-alone rather than one of this series at all! He arrives at the behest of a friend and thus I guess it isn't too surprising that his expertise in books & documents only figures very slightly in the case (though they do play a part). I didn't see the solution coming at all which normally would cause me to bump up my rating to a 4*; I didn't do so in this case because I didn't feel that I could have figured it out, that certain knowledge Gamadge had wasn't made available to me the reader. Of course, now that I write that I can't name anything specific to corroborate my feeling! ( )

It took longer than average for Gamadge to first appear in this 12th book in the series - so long, in fact, that I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be a stand-alone rather than one of this series at all! He arrives at the behest of a friend and thus I guess it isn't too surprising that his expertise in books & documents only figures very slightly in the case (though they do play a part). I didn't see the solution coming at all which normally would cause me to bump up my rating to a 4*; I didn't do so in this case because I didn't feel that I could have figured it out, that certain knowledge Gamadge had wasn't made available to me the reader. Of course, now that I write that I can't name anything specific to corroborate my feeling! ( )