Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell: Extracts from the Diaries of John H. Watson, MD

Holmes and Watson team up to boost England’s WWI efforts in screenwriter Meyer’s disappointing latest (after The Return of the Pharaoh). In 1916, Watson reunites with Holmes after spending a year treating soldiers who’ve returned from the front lines. Holmes, meanwhile, has continued working undercover to pump the imprisoned traitor Sir Roger Casement for information about German strategy. Casement tells Holmes that Germany plans to “starve England into surrender” via a prolonged U-boat campaign; he also says that a German foreign minister has a plan to ensure the U.S. doesn’t enter the war. A contact at the British secret service dispatches Holmes and Watson to the States to learn more; there, they uncover a plot involving an old nemesis of Holmes’s, and get tangled up in a pair of murders. Unfortunately, Meyer doesn’t focus on those crimes, opting instead to reframe Holmes as a Jason Bourne–style action hero. Meyer’s depiction of an aging, depressed Watson makes more of an impression, but in the end, this is too far-fetched for Holmes devotees and too run-of-the-mill for espionage fans. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary. (Aug.)