Sherlock Holmes and the Hearthstone Manuscript

Victor’s uneven 10th whodunit pairing Sherlock Holmes with real-life American authors from the late 19th and early 20th centuries (after Sherlock Holmes and a Tale of Greed) combines above-average atmospherics with boilerplate plotting. In 1899, Chicago novelist Hamlin Garland asks Holmes and Watson to help him probe the suspicious death of Muriel Laughton, the mother of his friend, British poet Owen Lester Cobb. Muriel was found dead in her bedroom at Hearthstone Hall, a manor house in Surrey overlooking a notoriously treacherous ravine known as the Devil’s Punch Bowl. Given his familiarity with the area, Holmes agrees to investigate, and ascertains that Muriel was drugged and then strangled. The investigation takes on new urgency when Hearthstone’s groundskeeper dies after being pushed into the Devil’s Punch Bowl, and Holmes sets out to find the killer among Hearthstone’s residents and employees. Victor excels at conjuring an eerie gothic ambience, and his Holmes and Watson are far more convincing than those found in other pastiches, but once the closed-circle mystery kicks into gear, the narrative loses steam. Only the most dedicated Sherlockians need apply. (Sept.)