VICKI
DELANEY
Synopsis
from Goodreads: Gemma
Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town
of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur's
Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop--located at 222 Baker
Street--specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also the
home of Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially
valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in
the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs.
Hudson's Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a
dead body.
The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it's a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.
The highly perceptive Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it's a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.
Stats
for my copy:
Hardback, Crooked Lane Books. Expected publication date 3/14/17.
How
acquired: Received for review from the publisher through Cozy Mystery Review Crew.
My
thoughts: This
book sounded so good that I was really excited to get it and looking
forward to reading it. And it was good, but not quite up to my
(admittedly high) expectations. The first person narrator, Gemma
Doyle, runs a book store/gift shop devoted to Sherlock Holmes and
items related to Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Sherlock canon.
Not because she is a particularly devoted Sherlock fan, but because
her uncle, who IS a particularly devoted Sherlock fan, started the
bookstore and she joined him in the business later. But Gemma is a
bit like Sherlock. She has acute powers of observation, and there are
many conversations wherein she shows off, er, demonstrates said
powers of observation by pointing out things the other party to the
conversation did not notice or missed. She often comes off as a
bit...lofty. Her friends seem to just accept it and aren't put off or
insulted by her. But I found her a little irritating at times. She
tells us, more than once, that she's offered or attempted to help out
the local police investigate crimes in the past only to have her
offers rebuffed.
It's
been many many many years since I've read any of the Sherlock books,
and my only recent experience with him is through the Benedict
Cumberbatch TV show (which I do love). So I don't remember if
Sherlock himself, the book Sherlock, came across the same way. But
since those stories were narrated by Watson, I think that probably
helped temper it. Maybe if Gemma's best friend, Jayne, were the
narrator here...I just didn't find Gemma to be a very sympathetic
character and so I had a little trouble liking her.
That
being said, I did like Jayne, and I liked Ryan Ashburton, the local
police detective who also happened to be Gemma's ex. And the mystery
was good. I was completely in the dark about who the culprit was in
the end and it came as a complete surprise.
