by James Lovegrove

Titan, out now

Five years after the events of The Hound of the Baskervilles, tragedy strikes once more at Baskerville Hall.

It may be seen as hubris to try to write a sequel to probably the best known of all the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories, but James Lovegrove is not the first person to try it – there’s David Stuart Davies’ The Tangled Skein, which added Dracula to the mix, for example, or Michael Hardwick’s The Revenge of the Hound. Like others, Lovegrove picks up on the uncertainty over Stapleton’s fate at the end of the original story, and uses that (and his own knowledge of the canon) to craft a plausible continuation.

A lot is made initially of Watson’s fear of dogs following his encounter with the Beast at the end of the original story and it’s a good way of separating the pair, and partnering Holmes with Lovegrove’s own creation, Corporal Benjamin Grier, a Masonic comrade of the North American Sir Henry. This also neatly inverts the structure of Doyle’s original, with Holmes, rather than Watson, ensconced at the Hall.

There’s talk of a giant vampiric moth, and some unpleasant creatures of more terrestrial origin – as well as some even more unpleasant creatures of human origin – within the story, which sees the return of a number of key characters from Doyle’s tale. Lovegrove is quite harsh on Sir Henry at times, but his characterisation of Holmes and Watson is, as ever, spot on, particularly at this slightly rocky time for them, shortly after Holmes’ return from the dead.

Lovegrove gets away with a joke that I’d never quite expected to see in print, and expands the canvas with the denouement taking place in pretty much the exact opposite terrain to the bleakness of Dartmoor. It’s a book to devour in as close to one sitting as you can – and pairs with the Doyle original closer than any other I’ve read.

Verdict: A cracking tale for Holmes and Watson. 9/10

Paul Simpson

James Lovegrove talks about writing Holmes and Watson in his interview here

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