GRAVES GATE

A former American spy joins forces with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1922 London in this period mystery. Charles Baker, an American fresh from clandestine service in the Great War, is working the London desk for the Associated Press when he finds himself discreetly retained by none other than Sir Arthur, whose increasing obsession with spiritualism (communication with the dead) has eroded his popularity. Doyle has received a letter from someone who claims to be the late Dr. Bernard Gussmann, a psychologist who had treated Doyle's disturbed father. The letter contains information about a previous meeting with Doyle that only he could possibly have known about. Is he contacting Doyle from the grave? The letter also mysteriously requests that Doyle put one of three people in contact with a certain woman who's serving time in prison. Fearing even more public humiliation, Doyle hires Baker to look into the letter. Baker's investigation is hampered by his friendship with Adrianna Wallace, the much younger wife of gay MP Frederick Wallace. Adrianna has an "arrangement" with Wallace, according to which they are each able to satisfy their sexual needs without incurring scandal, which is exactly what threatens to envelop Baker the more time he spends with Adrianna. But Baker finds himself in more immediate danger after his interviews with the three people named in the letter. He winds up flat on his back nursing a bullet wound, with various former wards of Gussmann stalking him. What begins as a promising, atmospheric tale of interwar London slowly degenerates over the course of this overweight novel into a muddy hybrid of old Sherlock Holmes routines mixed with contemporary psych-horror schlock. (July)