The Lantern’s Dance (2024) by Laurie King
Good Reads meta-data is 300 pages rated 4.54 by 759 litizens.
DNA: Holmes (attenuated).
Tagline: … [can’t think of anything].
Verdict: Number 18 in the series and it shows.
Mr and Mrs Holmes of Baker Street are at it again. Mary Russell may be Mrs Holmes, but the absent and deceased Irene Adler remains the love of Holmes’s life, now personified in a son from that brief and sinful liaison. Holmes has to rescue Son and then Son has to rescue father. Then Mary Russell has to explain it all to them.
Despite the turbans and lascars inconspicuously getting up to no good in rural Provence, this is a Holmes family reunion. And like most family gathering where the participants have nothing in common but blood, it is b-o-r-i-n-g.
To bring the generations together several laws of nature are set aside. The plot is a kaleidoscope that must have been worked out by Barry Jones in one of his maze flow charts. Turns out Holmes is Indian or Sikh, a Swami, or something. Dunno lost the plot. There is very little detecting and much musing.
Ahem, I can’t let that high score on Good Reads pass without a comment. I wonder if number 19 in this series appeared as 200 blank pages, would it get a similar rating. The author has a loyal following that sees what it wants to see. This book will not add any new adherents to that happy crew.