Overview

What's a holiday without surprises? It's Christmas 1867 at Underbyrne, the Holmes family estate. The house is filled with family, relatives, and three unexpected arrivals-all ready to celebrate the holidays. That is, until another uninvited guest appears: dead in the stables. The discovery marks the beginning of a series of bizarre occurrences: Sherlock's young cousin reports hearing footsteps outside the nursery, Mycroft suddenly falls head-over-heels in love, and the family learns more than one person under their roof harbors secrets. Is someone in the household a murderer? Sherlock must discover the dead man's identity before another un-welcomed body materializes.

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9781952408038

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Young Sherlock Holmes' family comes together to exonerate an Indian princess suspected of murder in the second installment of Sherwood-Fabre's historical mystery series. Sherlock Holmes' powers of observation and deductive reasoning are highlighted early on in Sherwood-Fabre's second novel, which features the sleuth as a boy. When the family receives guests from abroad, Sherlock blurts out India before his uncle, Ernest, even finishes the introductions. One of the guests, Col. Herbert Williams, asks the boy to explain himself and Holmes replies, Quite easily...your bearing indicates military service....Given your friendship with my uncle, the most obvious location would be India. He alludes to the ring finger of the second guest, Meredith Cummings, as indicative of her being recently engaged, but no longer, a statement that elicits a signal from his mother to cease observing so closely. The idea that the ability to minutely scrutinize one's environment could be a symptom of social awkwardness presents readers with an intriguing way to interpret Sherlock. Sherwood-Fabre also contextualizes the novel in the era of British imperialism-a prominent component of the story that moves the action forward. The mystery revolves around Chanda, an Indian princess disguised as Meredith's servant, who becomes a suspect in the murder of a stranger whose clothing marks him as Romani; the killing of Takahashi Fusamoto, Sherlock's Japanese martial arts instructor; and an assault on Meredith. Sherwood-Fabre adds further twists to the Holmes mythos by suggesting that Sherlock learned his initial crime-solving abilities from his mother. At one point, in order to analyze clues and secure Chanda's release, she has the family meet in her sitting room, where her bookshelf housed scientific treatises and...a microscope for her biological studies. As they converse, she writes ideas on a blackboard, thus inviting comparisons to the leader of a modern homicide task force using visual clues and logic to connect disparate bits of evidence. Overall, Sherwood-Fabre's reimagining of the famous detective ably expands the possibilities of the Holmes canon. A multifaceted and convincing addition to Sherlock-ian lore. Kirkus Reviews [Dr.] Sherwood-Fabre's entertaining sequel to The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife records another instance of the young Sherlock Holmes honing his detective skills. On a visit home from Eton, teenager Holmes and his seven-year-old cousin, Trevor, visit the family barn, where they find a dead man wearing gypsy pants. The astute Holmes notices that the man's hands suggest that he wasn't a real gypsy since they don't show the wear of the nomadic tradesmen. How he died isn't apparent, until Holmes's mother examines the body and concludes he was strangled. Holmes and his mother set out to ascertain the victim's identity and the killer, a move unwelcomed by Holmes's father, who's content with the official verdict that the man was attacked elsewhere and dumped on their property. Complications ensue after Holmes and his parents determine that someone in their household is a thief and a spy. A second homicide raises the stakes. Fans of unconventional takes on the canon, such as Leonard Goldberg's Daughter of Sherlock Holmes series, will look forward to more. Publishers Weekly

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