Sherlock Holmes and the Real Thing

If Meyer’s sterling seventh Holmes pastiche (after Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell) is, as he suggests in the acknowledgments, his last, he ends on a high note, serving up his best revamp of the Conan Doyle canon in years. Lady Glendenning, owner of many London properties, is referred to Baker Street by Scotland Yard after her usually reliable tenant, portrait artist Rupert Milestone, vanishes with three months of unpaid rent to his name. When Holmes and Watson accompany Lady Glendenning to Rupert’s residence, the sleuths spot several oddities, including “a kiln with no potting wheel or ceramics, an unfinished Venetian cityscape... an oddly situated portrait of the artist as a young man,” and blood. Their suspicions of foul play are validated when a male corpse is found nearby, gruesomely concealed inside a snowman, and three other dead bodies promptly turn up. Meyer avoids some of the pitfalls of his previous Holmes outings, firmly rooting the plot in Holmes’s investigative acumen instead of his physical derring-do, and he packs the action with devilish surprises. Baker Street regulars will be thrilled. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary. (Aug.)