The Wayward Prince: A Daughter of Sherlock Holmes Mystery

Goldberg’s middling seventh mystery featuring Joanna Blalock, kin to Conan Doyle’s iconic detective (after 2022’s The Blue Diamond), fails to paint its heroine as a convincing sleuth. In 1918, Joanna is summoned by Prime Minister Harold Lloyd-Jackson to help stave off “a looming disaster”: Prince Harry, third in line to the throne, has been missing for days, raising fears that he’s been abducted by the Germans. (British intelligence has decoded messages from German spies in London discussing a plan to embarrass the Crown.) Blalock takes the case, accompanied by her husband, John Watson (Dr. Watson’s son), and must overcome reluctance from Harry’s retinue to reveal aspects of his private life, including the identities of the prince’s numerous paramours, before she can make any genuine progress. There’s little suspense overall, and Joanna makes a series of deductions based on flimsy assumptions that undermine the intended portrayal of her as an intellectual equal to her father. Readers have a bevy of better gender-flipped Holmes tales to choose from, including the Enola Holmes YA series. (July)