To those of us who are connoisseurs of criminal cunning, it's an axiom that patterns of wrongdoing repeat themselves. It's as though the malefactors of today have taken example from the masters of past crime, which is why today's detectives must be as scientifically knowledgeable and unrelenting as a Father Brown, a Lord Peter Wimsey, or a Sherlock Holmes, and indeed such a man is Inspector James.