Solving time 16:10

Conan Doyle must be second only to Shakespeare in having his work used in thematic crosswords. This one contains four 15-letter Sherlock Holmes stories. I didn’t spot the theme right away – my first look at 14dn didn’t ring any bells so I just went through the non-thematic clues at first. The penny dropped when I got 24ac, so 14 ended in ?L?. …”love to see rising” was then obviously O,YLE and it was pretty much plain sailing after that, although I do admit to looking down the contents page of my Complete Sherlock Holmes to get 1dn (lucky for me I’m off sick today).

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This is only the second puzzle by Punk in the Indy, packed with cryptic definitions and imaginative clueing.   I noticed that Eimi, commenting on this site some time ago, said he was not Ximenean.    This is a big change for the Indy in my experience, though I have not noticed departures too often in recent puzzles.    There is at least one example in this one, I think.

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