HOLMES COMING

Sherlock Holmes is alive—and living in San Francisco!

In a brief “Author’s Apology” at the beginning of the book, ER physician Amy Winslow maintains that the story she’s about to tell, however outlandish, is true. While taking his early morning jog, SFPD Detective Donald Keating suffers a bizarre attack from a Bengal tiger. He’s rushed to Saint Francis Memorial Hospital, where Winslow is unable to save him. Still shaken by this bizarre episode, Winslow responds to a distress call from former patient Estelle Hudson, an elderly Scot who lives alone in a Victorian house in Marin County. Mrs. Hudson, who’s in a reminiscent mood, regales Winslow with stories from her past that culminate in an unexpected appeal to Winslow to buy the house and the unveiling of a secret room where dwells…Hubert Holmes, the real-life inspiration for the fictional Sherlock, kept alive for more than 100 years by a complicated chemical formula. Johnson clearly knows and respects his source material, though his plot is slowed by stories from Holmes full of references to 19th-century notables that, however clever, should appeal primarily to Doyle aficionados. But with a second bizarre murder and the disappearance of Keating’s partner, Luis Ortega, the game is definitely afoot. Naturally, a Moriarty emerges, and even Scotland Yard is thrown into the mix. Winslow’s plummy narrative voice is a satisfying imitation of Dr. Watson’s; additional pleasures of this confection come from Doyle-inspired updates, like the young Zapper, an Artful Dodger type who’s the foremost of the San Francisco Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars.

Splashy Holmes redux executed with skill and style.