Holmes and Watson start investigating numerous crimes in London starting with a kidnapped wife. Which bring in more clients one of which is Mary Anderson, or is Irene Adler, and her agent M.
But there is a puzzle, or a master plan, and they have a limited time to solve it.
An entertaining book, and I do like Holmes and Watson mysteries.
A NetGalley Book. ( )

I was given a copy of The Misadventure of Sherlock Holmes to review. It occurred to me that if I could lay hands on anything showing Mr. Holmes's reaction to the book, it would make a fascinating review. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any of his descendants, if there are any. But I did locate the great-great grandson of Dr. Watson. When I told him what I wanted, he laughed heartily and informed me that he had the letter Holmes wrote Watson on the occasion of the first publication, and offered to send me a photocopy of it. Here, in full, is the letter:

My dear Watson,

I was pleased with your decision to make a lengthy journey through America, largely so that I could plan on your being away from your medical/"literary" friend Dr. Conan Doyle. I assumed that would give me at least two years away from notoriety and requests to locate lost cats.

Alas, this did not come to pass. Instead, YOU wrote the book YOURSELF, which meant that instead of lacerating the tender feelings of semi-fictional characters to whom you and Dr. Conan Doyle gave fictitious names, you chose to lacerate MY not-so-tender feelings. The only person to whom you gave a different name was Billy. Why, forsooth, did you choose to call him Silas?

You could have explained that the Reverend Dr. Barker turned up alive; the man who performed the ceremony, and was later found dead, was an imposter, though one so good that even I did not realize he was a different man. That, of course, means that Miss Adler and I were never really married at all! But I do find that marriage has some benefits. I can only hope that I have not inadvertently begotten a child who would be born out of wedlock, as Miss Adler made it clear that she would be unwilling to enter into a real marriage with me.

Also, you describe my taking my mother out to a tea shop. You were courteous enough to pretend to have met her, but you could not have done so, as she passed away when I was eleven--and surely you wouldn't expect me to introduce Mother disrespectfully as my "old mama"! That day's entertainment was the result of a wager between Miss Adler and myself as to whether you would recognize her in the guise of an elderly woman. (I lost.)

On top of this insult to my character, you have fallen victim to the sloppy writing so common in American publications. If you insist on inflicting your prose on an unsuspecting public, please do me the kindness of STUDYING THE PROPER USE OF COMMAS! You seem to have thrown them onto the page from across the room. You omit them where they belong and insert them where they do not belong.

Did you find or invent that solecism "alright"? The correct usage is, as it surely will remain a hundred and fifty years from now, "all right."

It is not necessary for you to point out that in my few attempts to write about one of our adventures I came a cropper; I never intended or expected to write about my work except in scholarly works intended to pass my knowledge on to others. But in one case you were unavailable, and in the other you had not yet recovered from the ordeal, and I felt it essential for the story to be placed before the public as soon as possible to protect other people from the horrible plant.

As you have successfully proven that I cannot escape unwelcome publicity, you might as well come home. I find that I miss my one good friend--despite his lack of knowledge of what not to write.

Your affectionate friend (in spite of everything),

Holmes ( )

Obviously I knew this wasn't going to be like Sir Conan Doyle's Sherlock, exactly, but I had hoped it would be a little more like him? It just didn't feel like Sherlock and Watson to me. Was the story line line good and entertaining? Yes. I don't regret reading it and I do love Sherlock Holmes books, but this just wasn't for me. 3 out of 5 stars. ( )