The Papers in the Case

Review: Douglas Moreton follows his book After You, Holmes, with The Papers in the Case, containing 5 new tales. The author knows his Holmes and his period; he has an ingenious imagination, and he captures the style acceptably.

The plots range from an investigation of the Whitechapel murders of 1888 to the kidnapping of Mycroft Holmes in 1902. The stories are graced with appropriate period illustrations, and Mr Moreton has provided copious footnotes (so many as to be distracting: the information might have been better conveyed in an afterword to each story). The book is nicely presented - 100 pages in card covers - but there are several typos, which begin, alas, on the contents page: ‘Mandarin’ becomes ‘Manadarin’, and ‘Cotswold’ is ‘Costwold’. The title of ‘The Deadicated Dentist’ seems to be a deliberate pun, but if so it’s a bad one.

The Papers in the Case makes for an enjoyable couple of hours’ reading.(*Would a senior civil servant have been called a mandarin in 1902?*)

Reviewed by: Roger Johnson, [District Messenger, 176, 1998]