The Devil’s Blaze: Sherlock Holmes 1943

At the start of Harris’s strong sequel to 2020’s A Study in Crimson: Sherlock Holmes 1942, Holmes is consulted by Inspector Lestrade after three men—an army major, a Home Office official, and a government scientist—spontaneously combust in a matter of weeks, causing a panic. Those fears are exacerbated by an evangelist who claims that the deaths are a divine judgment on sinners incinerated by an “avenging fire.” The stakes rise when Sir Anthony Lloyd, the head of the Intelligence Inner Council, summons Holmes and Watson to a meeting in an ultra-secure location, where one attendee fatally combusts in front of them. Holmes’s investigation into the seemingly impossible killings overlaps with his efforts to bring Professor James Moriarty to justice. But despite his belief that Moriarty is a master criminal, the professor is so unsuspected of villainy that he’s been placed in charge of a top-secret facility similar to Bletchley Park, and Lloyd wants Holmes to seek Moriarty’s help with the devil’s blazes. While this is more thriller than whodunit, Harris makes his conceit plausible. Fans of the Basil Rathbone Holmes movies will be eager for more. Agent: Fiona Brownlee, Brownlee Donald Assoc. (U.K.). (Nov.)