Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781643850344; 9781643855738
Crooked Lane Books
336 Pages
$21.35; $7.99; $7.99 Amazon
November 24, 2020
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The 6th of January is Sherlock Holmes's birthday, and lucky for Gemma Doyle, January is also the slowest time of the year at both the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium and Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room. It's a good time for Gemma and her friends to travel to England for a Holmes convention. For Gemma, the trip provides an opportunity to visit her parents, Jayne Wilson is excited about seeing all the sites London has to offer, and Ryan Ashburton just wants to spend time with Gemma. But the trip is immediately derailed when Gemma's father Henry recognizes his brother-in-law Randolph Denhaugh, who disappeared more than thirty years ago on the night he stole a valuable painting from his own parents.
Henry, a retired detective with Scotland Yard, has been keeping tabs on the man's career as a forger of old masters, and he warns Randy to stay away from his family. But when Randy is found dead after the banquet with a dazed and confused Henry Doyle standing over him, the police leap to assume his guilt, it's up to Gemma, with the help of her friends, to plunge into the "lowest and vilest alleys" of London to save her father from prison.
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
Gemma Doyle, along with her great-uncle Arthur, own the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium in West London, Massachusetts. She, along with her friends Jayne, Donald, Grant, and boyfriend police detective Ryan Ashburton, are in London, England to attend a banquet where Arthur is to be given an award and Gemma is going to accept it for him. She's also planning on doing some shopping for the bookshop and visiting with her parents and older sister Pippa. While attending the expo, she comes across a man who seems to know who she is and gives her a message for her mother, Anne. But Gemma doesn't do so, and finds out from her father that he's her uncle Randolph, who absconded with the one thing her grandparents wanted. No one has heard from him since.
Then her father has a public scene with him, telling Randy to stay away from his family and they leave. But after the banquet, Gemma goes looking for her father and finds him standing over Randy's body looking dazed. The police detective on the case has an old grudge against Henry and decides he's guilty of murder. But when Pippa asks Gemma to get involved - telling her she can't be involved herself due to her job - Gemma, with the help of her friends, determines to find the guilty party, even if it means staying in London indefinitely....
This is probably my favorite book in the series. I have to say that while it started out slow (so slow I put it down a couple of times) once the action picked up, then I continued on to finish it in one sitting. In this book we get to meet Gemma's parents and sister, and it helps us understand more about her upbringing and why she is the person she is. I did enjoy the rapport between them, and the closeness they share as a family. It's delightful not to see a mother who harasses her daughter constantly, as many books portray them.
We also get to see parts of London through Gemma's and her friends eyes, and that's rather fun. Especially when it came to Gemma trying to ditch her friends while she played detective, much to the consternation of Ryan, who wasn't happy that she was investigating, especially since she wouldn't allow him to help.
The plot was done nicely, with the 'villains' in full view but still not so easy to find. The red herrings thrown throughout kept us busy traveling the streets of the city hunting for the person who wanted Randolph dead, and the reasons why. When we finally come to the climax of the book, with Gemma finding her prey, it's rather interesting and fun, and watching it all come to a head is worth the wait. I look forward to the next in the series. Recommended.
More on Vicki Delany's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/vicki-delany/
No comments:
Post a Comment