In this outing, Siciliano transports us to the dramatic coastline of Yorkshire, where madmen still live in castles and an ancient beast, a "white worm," may (or may not) inhabit a bottomless pit in the middle of an ancient grove once frequented by Druids. Is Lady Verr, Holmes' hostess, merely a charming but misfortune-plagued widow, or is she a voluptuous bohemian seductress in search of a fortune at whatever cost, or is she something more ... perhaps even the reincarnation of an ancient family curse? Holmes' mission is to clear the name of Lady Verr's pretty ward, Diana Marsh, thus rendering her an eligible companion for the girl's eminently eligible but neurotic suitor Adam Selton.

This is a serviceable pastiche that combines elements of The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Lion's Mane. The gothic elements of the story are just about right: appropriately one-dimensional (the mysterious widow, the monster, the virgin, the knight, the madman in the tower) without disintegrating into camp. And besides substituting Holmes' kinsman Dr. Vernier for Dr. Watson (an inside Sherlockian reference to a hint in one of the original stories of a relationship between the Holmes family and the famous painter Vernier), Siciliano is careful not to take liberties with the canon. Never fear: Holmes isn't going to turn out to be a vampire, or secretly married, or in collusion with Cluthlu.

My main qualm is that Siciliano's Holmes fails to rise to his usual level of genius. In attempting to carve out a role for Vernier and his liberated wife Michelle, the author assigns some of the key deductions in the case to these minor characters. On the one hand, I appreciate what Siciliano is trying to accomplish, by providing Holmes with sidekicks that aren't just boobs, but have actual value-added (an insight into human psychology) to contribute. On the other hand, I had a hard time believing that the "real" Holmes (irony intended) would overlook clues so obvious, most readers are going to be able to figure them out on their own.

In summary, you might characterize this a better-than-usual episode of a familiar TV show: satisfying, entertaining, unobjectionable, but probably nothing you'll remember after a few months have passed. ( )