I’ve enjoyed the author’s military action S-Squad books, so I was curious to see how he’d handle a mystery. This short book was a lot of fun: no enormous twists or surprises, but satisfying combination of investigation and action. As with the original Conan Doyle books, we experience the story through Watson’s eyes rather than Holmes’. The language feels suitably Watson-ish without being obtrusively old-fashioned, and I didn’t feel the author had taken liberties with the period. (Though I’ll note here I’m not a Holmes purist).

Since the reader is probably expecting a weird/eldritch tale, the findings are more of a surprise to our heroes than to us. I had fun wondering just when Holmes would cotton on.

Overall, an entertaining light mystery horror.