The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife: The Early Case Files of Sherlock Holmes, Book One

What was Sherlock Holmes like at 13? Sherwood-Fabre offers a creative answer in this promising series kickoff. Holmes is attending Eton when a letter from his father mandates his return home because of an unspecified problem. When Holmes meets his brother, Mycroft, on the train home, he’s stunned to discover that his mother has been arrested for the pitchfork murder of Emma Brown, the village midwife, on the Holmes family estate. The local constable, concerned about being perceived as giving the gentry preferential treatment, and aware that the two women recently argued about something, has locked her up. Certain his mother is innocent, Holmes investigates at her request. By providing Holmes with some age-appropriate concerns and reactions—he fears disappointing his mother for not maintaining his violin practice regimen while at school, and is almost physically ill when he learns of his mother’s arrest—Sherwood-Fabre makes her conceit of a teen sleuth work. Sherlockians open to plausible extrapolations from the canon will enjoy this. (Self-published)