The five long tales in Thomas's third Sherlock Holmes collection (after 2002's Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt
) offer gripping plots and masterfully evoke the flavor of Doyle's original stories of the great detective. Holmes's legendary powers of logic are deftly displayed in "The Case of the Greek Key," in which a German cipher must be cracked to preserve some vital military secrets, and "The Case of the Peasenhall Murder," in which he finds evidence that a parson accused of a brutal murder has been framed. The high point is "The Case of the Phantom Chambermaid," in which Holmes's intervention on behalf of a fired servant leads him to foil a diabolical murder plot. Few authors have done as well as Thomas in bringing these beloved and familiar characters to life, and Sherlockians everywhere will hope that less time passes before Thomas again delves into Watson's fabled cache of untold adventures. (May)
