The Final Solution By Walter Harmidarow
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REVIEW BY DAVID LAGRAFF
Hmmm, Watson. Some modern writer has worked up the nerve and unmitigated gall to write a new Sherlock Holmes mystery. The idea at first made me a bit queasy. (I'm still recovering from those awful James Bond sequels.) But, careful, we're talking e-books here. The ground is anything but tried and true, being mostly populated by rag-tags pushing the medium to the max, throwing mud at the literary walls to see what sticks. Does this particular pushing of said envelope make the grade? Now that I've read Final Solution, all I can say is, pack your bags and be sure to take a warm sweater. You're going to the center of London where the streets are icy and the hearts of your enemies are as cruel as the wind. Travel back to the famous genteel lair of one Sherlock Holmes, the guy with the Cray Supercomputer for a brain, whose seven percent solutions run side by side with world-altering deductions that rid Queen Vickie's country of certain high profile individuals of the pesky criminal variety. But something's gone awry at 221B Baker Street. No, it's not from a substandard glass of port or stale cigars. On New Year's Eve 1892, Sherlock Holmes has come to a bad end, captured by the very man he's been sleuthing all day over a hot stack of evidence -- the evil criminal genius Professor James Moriarty. Moriarty resents Holmes' intrusions; they take time away from his urgent task of conquering the world. Only one man stands between Moriarty and his ultimate success: the guy in the double-billed houndstooth cap, Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty is a worthy opponent for Holmes, and his genius for deception begins to show itself immediately, as Holmes is framed for a grisly knife murder. Not only framed, but physically caught in the act with knife in hand and the oozing body still warm. There's no way a drugged, dazed Holmes can overcome the all-consuming snare he finds himself in. When Watson stages an all-important jailbreak, the questions begin to multiply faster than London sewer rats. What follows is an unforgettable and life-enriching journey by two old friends to a place where faith is but an illusion, and all that ever went before is called into question. It's the place all Sherlock Holmes novels go, and the place where the brilliance of the detective can be fully appreciated and savored by us mere mortals. This very fine continuance of Conan Doyle's classic series is performed with sensitivity, brilliance and taste by author Walter Harmidarow, an avid Sherlockian, and a member of the Bootmakers of Toronto, the largest Sherlock Holmes Society in Canada. He has presented papers and been published in Canadian Holmes, the quarterly journal of the Bootmakers. Amazingly, this is Harmidarow's first novel, and yet it appears he's been dancing in these hallowed aisles for years. Enjoy this fine mystery and hope the author is encouraged enough by your purchase to write yet another. Harmidarow is a worthy successor to Arthur Conan Doyle. Meanwhile, join me in a fresh pipe and a glass of port while we await further tales. David G. LaGraff's cutting-edge novels of love, passion and elegant revenge are available at Wordbeams.com. You can contact him at dlagraff@concentric.net.
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