The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes

The pseudonymous Grant takes a fantastic premise—that a frozen Sherlock Holmes is miraculously revived in the 21st century—and puts it to effective use in this first in a projected series of pastiches. In a career parallel to the original Dr. Watson’s, middle-aged British journalist James Wilson returns, wounded, from the current war in Afghanistan, and finds himself in need of a roommate. A chance meeting with an acquaintance leads him to share a cottage in the Welsh village of Hay-on-Wye with one Cedric Coombes, who has a particular interest in history from 1914 on. The action-heavy backstory, involving a mission to avert WWI, is the weakest point, but the present-day murder mystery, with connections to American abuses of prisoners in Iraq, is solid and makes the prospect of further books welcome. Grant gets some details wrong (Doyle’s Holmes often quoted from Shakespeare, for example), but Sherlockians will be pleasantly surprised. (June)