eyes.2c Reviews

The Vampyre Client  (Irregular Detectives Mysteries #4) by Jeri Westerson       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Baker Irregulars Timothy Badger and Benjamin Watson (and of course reporter Miss Littleton) turn to new case Their client is a Jonathan Wicker who has newly moved to an estate, Caurdal Hall, in Hertfordshire. The locals are convinced he’s a vampyre (ok he does wrap himself in a cloak and a wide brimmed hat and studies bats!) But since his arrival  animals have mysteriously been found with their throats mauled. Wicker wants Badger and Watson to help persuade the locals of Ashwell Village that he’s not a vampyre. The local workers had all downed tools and walked off. Wicker needs parts of the Hall to be repaired. When Badger and Watson reach their destination (along with Miss Littleton) they find a suspicious community, a somewhat prejudiced vicar, a hostile police inspector, and an angry local lord. All becomes even more fraught when there employer is found dead. After som...

Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident  (Holmes & Hudson Mysteries #7)   by Martin Davies  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Along with Flotsam, I (your humble reader)  agonized about what to write to Scraggs, Flotsam’s special friend, who’d years earlier had rescued her from the gutter, and placed her in the care of Mrs Hudson in the household of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Here, as a maid, she’d learnt to read and write, and proved to be a an asset in assisting with investigations. Scraggs (gone from barrow boy to part owner of a London store) has gone to Manchester for business meetings and and a look at some of the latest developments. Flotsam was always was able to put it off writing to Scraggs because something more demanded her attention. (A lot of guilt follows, swept away by the latest emergencies) Holmes has been bored but now several situations come to his attention,  including a request from Queen Victoria. All hands to the deck, naturally including Mrs Hudson and F...

Miss Moriarty, I Presume?  (Lady Sherlock #6)   by  Sherry Thomas       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ To come face to face with her nemesis Moriarty is not what Charlotte expected.  Moriarty, using the pseudonym Mr. Baxter turns up with Mr. Marbleton to engage Miss Holmes.  To be asked to rescue Moriarty’s daughter from a group of occultists in Cornwall—Hermatists is quite the shock. Apparently Moriarty had forced her to return to him but that was short lived. She had returned to the commune with certain obligations. It seems Miss Baxter has been leading Moriarty quite the dance. Engaged to six unsuitable men in fifteen months, he gave into her imploring as he didn’t want to be seen as her ‘jailer.’ Moriarty’s solicitor has not been able to see ‘Miss Baxter.’  Needless there are some alarming aspects. So many things afoot! Just what is Charlotte going to discover. Apart from the fact that Moriarty is able to exercise an hypnotic quality. Pertinent in these day...

Castle Shade (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #17) by Laurie R. King      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes leave the Côte d’Azur (see Riviera Gold ) and forge onward to Roumania, “a place where the maps have ‘Here be dragons.’” Actually they are heading for a village near to Brasov and Queen Marie’s favourite castle. ”Castle Bran in the Transylvania hills [that] has everything one could wish, including it seems witches, vampires and things that go bump in the night.” They’ve come at the bequest of Queen Marie, a granddaughter of Victoria. It also appears that Sherlock had been this way when he’d been absent during Mary’s time in the Riviera. Both journies enabled by Mycroft to ensure that the Queen is not being targeted by groups determined to be rid of her. (Interestingly by now May and Sherlock have come to the decision that Mycroft needs to stop interfering with their lives. I sense a thoughtfulness from Sherlock about Mary as his wife and what that m...

The Art of Deception (The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes Mysteries #4) by Leonard Goldberg          Valuable art works being slashed and damaged has Joanna and husband John along with Watson (and young son Johnny) searching for the culprit. The plot becomes complicated, involving art dealers, restorers and art collections reaching into rarified circles. As fitting, the mystery is multi-layered. Joanna Blalock-Watson is the picture of aloof intellect, removed from others, as her brain makes connections. That is softened a couple of times when Joanna's concern for her family group is evident. Son Johnny and the mention of cholera has her taking charge immediately. Loved the health regimes instituted and the social distancing. It means more at this current time. Still I find Joanna a mostly distant figure. The actual mystery the Holmes/Watsons are involved in didn't lose my interest, but for some reason I found myself dropping in and out of reading this novel. ...

Riviera Gold (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #16) by Laurie R. King          Before my eyes Mary Russell, investigator, intellectual/prodigy, wife and partner to Sherlocke Holmes, a derring do sailor (despite her dislike of sailing), art critic and avenging angel sails into Monte Carlo without Holmes. Of course she's never sure when, or if, Holmes will join her. Is already there, or off somewhere else? Mary sails off from Venice with the Hon. Terry and gang, and after twenty-two days of hard work and avoiding sea sickness she arrives in Monte Carlo. Mrs Hudson, now Clara not Clarissa, has left the Holmes abode. The last Mary heard (whilst in Venice) was that she'd been seen in Monte Carlo. When Mary does see her, Mrs. Hudson is at a beach party with some of Mary's new and reasonably wealthy, avant garde friends, she's lending a hand minding the children. All I can say to King is, "What did you do with Mrs Hudson?" Last I saw of her was in "The ...

The Art of Theft (Lady Sherlock #4) by Sherry Thomas            Such a complex and rewarding story that explores the Holmsian genre and all it's accoutrements in a brilliant fashion. Charlotte Holmes is an usual person, focussed, brilliant, capable of ingenious guile, a freethinker with a much vaunted love of sweet things. The descriptions of her measures in the face of the dreaded approach of Maximum Tolerable Chins, the sensuality with which she regards deserts just serve to enhance her quirkiness. Charlotte, Lady Sherlock is asked by fabulous Mrs. Watson to help solve a problem for an old friend. That request opens memory doors for Mrs. Watson, and danger and intrigue for all. Their quest takes Charlotte, Mrs. Watson, and Lord Ingham, along with her sister Livia and Stephen Marbleton to Paris and beyond.  A famous private annual Art auction and a glittering ball held at a heavily guarded chateau is where their attention is centered. What t...

The Disappearance of Alistair Ainsworth  (The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes #3) by Leonard Goldberg       A thoroughly mezmerizing  chase that piles fact upon fact with Sherlock Holme's  daughter Joanne smoking Turkish cigarettes and deducing information from both what is present and what is not. The aside factor of her son Johnny coming home from Eton declaring that he only needs a home tutor is something Joanne handles beautifully. And of course there are tentacles attached to the current case that see Johnny coming home. It's November 1915. An awfully clever, high ranking codebreaker, has gone missing and as Joanne, her now husband John Watson, and her father-in-law, Dr. Watson go on the hunt the bodies pile up. Joanne deduces that Alistair Ainsworth, "was not taken prisoner in his workplace, but somewhere outside the agency, preferably in a secluded location where no one could see the capture or hear his cry." The logical development around clues...

Island of the Mad   (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #15)  by Laurie R. King     Not only but also! An absorbing investigation by Mary and Sherlock that takes us from Bedlam to the Lido and onto the Venetian asylum island of Poveglia. What a fabulous conondrum for the wonderful Mary Russell and her ever fascinating husband Sherlock Holmes. Mary is asked by an old friend to find out about her aunt Vivian Beaconsfield who seems to have absconded from Bedlam along with some family jewels. The whole family seems cowered by Vivian's brother the Marquess of Selwick, who may or may not have been responsible for confining Vivian to Belam. The search leads Mary to pre war Venice with Mussolini in power and his Blackshirts are instilling their reign of terror. Wonderful descriptions of the Lido and the going on of the permanent visitors to Venice, including Cole Porter are detailed. (Mycroft has asked Sherlock to look at the Fascists. He is disquieted!) I love the...

Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Years: Japa n by Vasudev Murthy  What is it about Sherlock Holmes--the pull of Sherlockian or Holmesian interpretations? We can't seem to get enough of him. And he appears everywhere, in print, in film, in television, all with differing perceptions of the man, the myth--and now we have the 'Missing Years' It's 1893, approximately two years since Reichenbach Falls and Sherlock's death. Watson receives a note ostensibly from Sherlock asking him to go to Japan. Does he think twice? No, he goes! On Board ship he meets a number of interesting people including the quiet and gentle Mr. Kazushi Hashimoto with whom he shares a cabin. The morning the ship docks in Alexandria, Watson awakes to find the small cabin window open and Mr. Hoshimoto dead. With another passenger, Mr. Shamsher Singh, Watson investigates how access might have been gained to the cabin. Watson himself appears to have slept through the incident, a restless sleep accompa...