No Police Like Holmes

A gathering of Sherlockians in Erin, Ohio, turns deadly in this entertaining whodunit that's a notch or two below similarly themed books like The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars and Murder, Most Irregular. In 2011, St. Benignus College hosts a colloquium on Doyle and Holmes, an event that school public relations director Jeff Cody hopes will generate positive press. The event coincides with the donation to the college of the third largest private collection of Sherlockiana from millionaire Woolcott Chalmers. Things begin to go bad when several of the most valuable items, including a copy of the original printing of the first Holmes story dedicated by Doyle to his mother, are stolen, under circumstances pointing to one of the conference's attendees. And they go from bad to worse when one of the main suspects in the theft is gunned down, turning Cody and his brother-in-law, Sebastian McCabe, into amateur sleuths to help minimize the bad publicity by resolving both mysteries. The plot isn't the most sophisticated, but Cody is engaging enough to make further books in the series welcome. (Nov.)