Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Green Dragon

A plot heavier on action than deduction mars Rivera’s disappointing debut. In 1891, Sherlock Holmes is consulted by charwoman Dwylla Dodd after her lighthouse keeper husband, George, is arrested for murder. The detective is on the verge of declining to help until he learns that the victim is Gustav Oberstein, a German spy. When Holmes and Watson travel to the scene, an unusually dense inspector initially resists their involvement. During their meeting with George, he admits to stabbing Oberstein, but in self-defense. The German attacked him while repeatedly yelling, “The gruel! Drank it!” The third-person narration reveals that the death is connected with Professor Moriarty’s machinations, providing a less than inspired prologue to Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem.” Characters behave in uncanonical ways, from Mrs. Hudson’s initial refusal to let a prospective client see Holmes to Moriarty’s murder of a prostitute while looking “lost in a dream state of fury, dominance, and evil.” “Why should Jack have all the fun?” the professor declares. Readers looking for quality pastiches have plenty of better alternatives. (Feb.)