Moriarty Returns a Letter

You don’t have to be a Sherlockian to enjoy Robertson’s excellent fourth Baker Street mystery (after 2013’s The Baker Street Translation). Early chapters, including one set in 1893 in which a Pinkerton agent attempts to save his own life by claiming to be Professor Moriarty, set the groundwork for the well-constructed plot that follows. In the book’s present-day of 1998, London barrister Reggie Heath, who leases 221B Baker Street on condition that he deal with letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes, is still recovering months later from the trauma of having been the target of “schizophrenic savant” Darla Rennie, who believed he was actually Holmes. Blaming Heath for the death of her notorious ancestor, Professor Moriarty, Rennie kidnapped Heath’s love interest, Laura Rankin, before apparently falling to her death in the Thames. Robertson does a nice job of playing with the notion that both Holmes and Moriarty were real in an entry that exhibits the rich possibilities of his premise. Agent: Kirby Kim, William Morris Endeavor. (Jan.)