Sherlock Holmes and the Swedish Enigma

The pseudonymous Grant’s third novel featuring a defrosted 21st-century Holmes (after 2011’s Sherlock Holmes and the Shakespeare Letter) offers an intriguing riff on The Hound of the Baskervilles, though Grant’s interpretation of Holmes isn’t as sophisticated as the contemporary version in the BBC-TV series Sherlock. A policeman descendant of Inspector Lestrade comes to Holmes and his Watson-like sidekick, James Wilson, with a case presenting “features of interest” that are catnip to the master sleuth. A larger-than-life-sized statue of Aphrodite was stolen from the house of a London lawyer, whose pet macaw was left decapitated and hanging from its perch. Another statue has also vanished from a historian’s residence, along with his daughter, the family dog, and two pieces of cake. Clues in the burglaries take the faithful Wilson to Cornwall to observe and report. While the denouement doesn’t quite live up to the tantalizing puzzles, this is a major improvement over the often improbable second book. Agent: Al Longden, Albert Longden Associates. (May)