Review by Booklist Review
Feckless British lawyers Reggie and Nigel Heath got a sweet deal on the rent. They get an office at 221 Baker Street at a discount. All they have to do is answer the mountains of mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes. This has produced five delightful comic adventures, and, here, with number six in the series, Nigel is out of the country and Reggie is a supernumerary in his own story. Reggie marries his squeeze, the beautiful actress Laura Rankin. Their attempt afterward to flee fans and photographers by airplane Who knew Laura was a licensed pilot? ends when they vanish off the earth. Muddled attempts to find them produce a low-energy narrative that comes alive when the mysterious Siger, the "tall fiftyish man" carrying a violin case, turns up. This Holmes-ish apparition, who appeared at key moments in earlier episodes, brings the puzzlement toward a solution by noting that a bar rag isn't where it should be. Could this be a ghostly visitation by the Master, who loved to lecture on the importance of trifles and once, to fool everybody, called himself Sigerson? Whatever he is, he carries the book, which is a must for Holmes lovers.--Don Crinklaw Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Robertson's weak sixth Baker Street mystery (after 2016's The Baker Street Jurors) lacks the humor and original plotting of its predecessors. A prologue set 20 years in the past at a boarding school dance in Bodfyn, Cornwall, focuses on an ungainly teenager, cruelly nicknamed Potty Bobby, who gets a moment of respite from his classmates' taunts when Laura Penobscott invites him to dance. In the present, the celebrated actress known as Laura Rankin, formerly Laura Penobscott, is preparing to marry Reggie Heath, one of the 221B Baker Street lawyers who are legally required to respond to correspondence sent to Sherlock Holmes at that address. When the ceremony is disrupted by paparazzi sent by Lord Buxton, a wealthy man smitten with Laura, the newlyweds flee to Cornwall, ending up in Bodfyn. The death in an apparent hiking accident of an actress slated to appear in a local production of Macbeth provides both a mystery to solve and a chance for Laura to help out by taking over the victim's role. Unsurprising reveals display none of the author's usual ingenuity. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Senior solicitor Reggie Heath's honeymoon with actress Laura Rankin turns into a criminal mess that cries out for the gifts of Sherlock Holmes.Reggie, with Nigel, his brother and junior colleague, answers the letters benighted souls are still writing Sherlock Holmes. But the letter that precipitates this case is one Reggie doesn't see till after it's taken dramatic effect, a plea for Holmes to bring Scarecrow out to the village of Bodfyn, where something is terribly wrong. Scarecrow was her fellow students' nickname for Laura when, as Laura Penobscott, she attended Bodfyn boarding school, and she's the person who improbably takes custody of the letter. Since she and Reggie are already on the run from the paparazzi her disappointed suitor, Lord Buxton, has set on them to dog and trouble their every move, she has no compunctions about escaping from her paparazzi-infested wedding to Reggie aboard a tiny plane she flies to Bodfyn, where Mrs. Hatfield, her old drama teacher who's artistic director to a regional theatrical company, beseeches her to step into the role of Lady Macbeth because Melanie, the actress originally cast in the role, has become unavailable. In fact Melanie's not indisposed but murdered; her death is clearly the terrible wrong at Bodfyn; and there's every indication that her killer has an eye on Laura as well. Her only hope is not her bridegroom, who's worse than useless, but Siger, the inquisitive old busker with a history at the Baker Street Law Chambers (The Baker Street Jurors, 2016, etc.), who returns to sweep Lois, the Heaths' secretary/clerk/receptionist, up with him in an equally charged and daffy journey to Bodfyn.Despite many of Robertson's trademark witty touches, the slapdash plotting, florid coincidences, and unbelievable motive of the culprit make this the weakest of his six aprs-Holmes pastiches. Wait till next year. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
