Earlier today, sources from inside Scotland Yard confirmed that eccentric gentleman detective Aloysius Pellinore has really lucked out on his last several cases requiring intimate knowledge of opera, chess, and fine brandies.

For more information on this story, we spoke to Harry Simmons, a detective-sergeant and Pellinore’s partner on several recent cases.

“Look, Pellinore’s a good guy, but the level of luck that he’s been getting is just insane. I mean, look at the last one. We had to catch a deranged murderer whose crimes all mirror obscure Italian operas, and it just so happens that Pellinore is a massive fan of obscure Italian operas. I mean, what the fuck? What’re the chances that both the murderer and detective love La Gazza Ladra? If there was a murderer who based all his crimes on 80’s pop songs, I’d be all over that. But no, whenever I’m on a case with Pellinore it’s always like ‘The Cognac Killer’ or some dude who’s really into lepidopterology leaving coded messages in butterflies.”

We also talked to Pellinore, a frequent Snitch contributor, about his luck on recent cases:

“As an eccentric gentleman detective, it is my job to find patterns everywhere, and yes, I admit it may seem slightly odd that my last fifteen cases all cater to my hobbies and strengths perfectly while fitting into thematically sound arcs where it seems like I never have to do any paperwork. But not all my cases are so perfect! In a recent investigation, I was chasing down a jewel thief who was basing his robberies on the 12th-century French epic poem Gormond et Isembart but I had only written my undergraduate thesis on the 11th-century French epic poem La Chanson de Roland. It sure took me around exactly an hour to figure that one out.”

At press time, Pellinore took on another case, this one involving Middle English poetry.