The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Deathly Relics

Siciliano’s weak eighth Sherlock Holmes pastiche (after 2020’s The Venerable Tiger), more of an action thriller than a mystery, pairs Holmes with his physician cousin, Henry Vernier, instead of Dr. Watson, a difference that has little impact on the enterprise. Holmes has retrieved a sensitive document for the Vatican at the request of Pope Leo XIII, who now asks for further assistance. A sacred relic, the forefinger of Saint Thomas, has been stolen from its locked storage case in a chapel at Santa Croce, where it was stored with five other holy relics. The motive for the theft is unclear, but the matter seems to resolve itself when the missing skeletal digit is returned in a package from an anonymous sender. However, that proves a false ending. After a guard is placed in the chapel, he’s murdered by a method that’s the hallmark of the criminal group known as the Camorra, and all the relics are stolen. The clichéd plot, complete with a damsel in distress, isn’t enhanced by a romantic subplot that occupies far too much of the novel. Hopefully, Siciliano will return to form next time. (Jan.)