The first part of a new Sherlockian novel by Eddie
This is a short novel that is really the first half of a lengthy novel published in two parts. The second part has also been released by Breese Books as "Sherlock Holmes and the Bolshevik Plot." This first book offers the advantages that are usual to Mr. Maguire?s Sherlockian tales; interesting plots, good characterizations and proper English. His other, earlier Sherlockian efforts have been collected by Breese books into a single anthology, Sherlock Holmes and the Tandridge Hall Murders. A later novella has also been published by Breese as ?Sherlock Holmes and the Highcliffe Invitation? as part of their anthology, Sherlock Holmes & the 3 Poisoned Pawns.
This tale takes place in 1912 as Doctor Watson is visiting Sherlock in his retirement cottage in Sussex. Eminent Government figures show up in the middle of the night with the news that Sherlock?s brother, Mycroft, has been injured and has gone missing while on a Government-sponsored mission in Italy. This is followed quickly by the news that Mycroft has died of a burst appendix at a private Clinic near Rome. At the same time, Doctor Watson gets word that a woman has called for him at his surgery asking his help to find her husband who has been kidnapped
Sherlock becomes hysterical at the news about Mycroft, laughing and carrying on. Watson asks Holmes to stay at their old rooms in Baker Street until the situation is resolved, so they head off to London. The Government are frantic to urge Sherlock to take his brother?s place in the negotiations that Mycroft was trusted with in Italy but Sherlock is reluctant. In the middle of the night a stranger arrives at their front door after being stabbed by kidnappers bringing a victim aboard his ship, which is set to sail on the morning tide. Sherlock sees the events as an opportunity to avoid the Government requests and to pursue inquiries about Mycroft, whose appendix had been removed years earlier. He and Watson contrive a plot that will use Chief Inspector Lestrade to discourage the Government efforts to recruit Sherlock.
From this point on, things become even more confused as separate happenings seem to intertwine and the fate of Europe hangs in the balance. Offstage, Russian affairs seem to be manipulated by a mysterious VIU which turns out to be Vladimir Illych Ulyanov., later known as ?Lenin.? Sherlock and Watson encounter an unsavory pair of French nobility on the train to Rome and indulge in a bit of ?sleuthing? that impresses a Captain Cattini of the Carabinieri who is also traveling to Rome on the train. News of Holmes? breakdown reaches the British Press and reports of his confinement in a Sanitarium lead to questions about the missing Holmes brothers and the causes of their disappearances.
Careful efforts by Sherlock and Watson lead to the discovery of Mycroft as a prisoner in a ?medical clinic.? They manage to free Mycroft but their attempt to free the kidnapped man and to take his captors come to naught through the efforts of the kidnappers and the ineptitude of the Italian police. It has become clear that the entire sequence of events was part of a plot against the Czar but the nature of the plot and the participants are still murky.
The book is interesting, well-written and well-edited.. Unfortunately, no resolutions are possible without the second book in the series, Sherlock Holmes and the Bolshevik Plot. The two really should have been issued as single volume, which would have produced a solid novel, perhaps larger than usual, but not nearing the size of many modern action tales.
Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, September 2011
