This is the eighth book in the ‘Daughter of Sherlock Holmes’ series by Leonard Goldberg. I have not read any of the other books so, please read this review within that context.
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It is 1918 and we are in London. World War One is still ongoing. Bombings have changed the landscape of London. However, some things will never change and 221B Baker Street is one of them.
In between bomb attacks, Joanna Blalock Watson, daughter of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, both deceased, and husband Dr. John Watson, M.D., Jr get a visit from Sir William Radcliffe, the chancellor of the Exchequer. That translates to the Treasury Secretary for the USA. The Chancellor is being blackmailed.
Someone has taken increasingly compromising pictures of his granddaughter with a handsome young man who is not her fiancée. If the Chancellor continues to pay, the blackmail will never stop. There is no telling how many pictures there are or whether they get more graphic. The Chancellor might need to vacate his seat in the War Council, the marriage may be called off, and the family’s reputation will be tarnished for years to come.
Since the granddaughter is clearly not telling the whole truth, it is to be expected that there are more pictures of increasing intimacy.
The investigation into the identity of the blackmailer, their location, and where the pictures were taken leads us to bars, opium dens, and theaters. We meet polka dancing people of interest in Whitechapel, the gang of street urchins is active, and we explore thermodynamics and forensic science as they were in 1918.
What is slightly amusing but mostly irritating is that all the characters are descendants of the ones created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Those characters have gained a place in our imagination while reading their adventures. The actors Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, and Benedict Cumberbatch have added their own touch to Sherlock Holmes’ image. Either way, we have been given plenty of information to form an image and create a bond with the Conan Doyle characters.
Even with all this in my memory and reading backpack, I could not warm up to any of the main characters in this book. None possessed charm, warmth, or showed the odd expression of friendship or camaraderie you would expect from descendants whose ancestry is so close-knit.
Yes, Joanna married John Jr but in this book the admiration within that relationship is one-sided. Her (second) husband is of course the son of Dr. John Hamish Watson, M.D., who is the only original character in this book series. He is still a renowned doctor and, in his eighties, yet Joanna just calls her father-in-law Watson. I find it disrespectful. Is this explained in an earlier book? Granted, if everyone is called John (the son Joanna has from a previous marriage is called Johnnie) and has the same last name, you have fewer options but just Watson feels wrong.
Miss Hudson and Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Lestrade are all ancestors too. I fully expected to meet a descendant of Moriarty. Alas, none appeared in this book.
The plot is easy to follow and is straight forward. Midway through the book you know who the blackmailer is. What then follows is how to stop them.
How the main characters at 221B Baker Street reach their conclusions is often a tour de force. We are constantly reminded of how incredibly intelligent the daughter of Sherlock Holmes is. Her insights may be spot on however it is the way she relates her deductions to the other characters in the book. She lets them talk about their findings and observations only to say, “but did you not also notice…” and then we get to see how brilliant she is. She lost me when she felt the need to explain the difference between blanks and bullets to her family especially considering their services to Scotland Yard and extensive medical knowledge.
The ending of the story is entirely possible but the writing is rushed. It takes the reader’s attention away from how the plot unfolds. There were a lot of details about all the purchases that needed to be made and the scientific experiment that had to be conducted before they could go out to finally end the blackmailing.
As nobody can keep paying blackmail, the Watsons had to get their hands on the rest of the pictures in the house of the blackmailer. But, when we are there, everything unfolds too fast compared to the lengthy descriptions of all the preparations. It is not that you cannot follow the ending or that the medical conclusions in the last chapter were not expected. The book just has such a slow buildup that the rush at the end does not feel right.
If you love Sherlock Holmes, check it out but be aware that these characters are all descendants. Let me know your thoughts about this book series.
Note: I received an Advance Reading Copy from Wunderkind PR in exchange for an honest review. My other book reviews are here.