10 May 2024
ISBN: 978-0-85495345-5 (PB)
These early
adventures of the young Sherlock Holmes are recounted in the memoirs of Arthur
Stamford, the student doctor who shared Holmes’ adventures and acted as his
biographer before Holmes met Doctor Watson.
This story recounts the events that occurred following the first time Stamford
meets Sherlock Holmes’ elder brother. Mycroft Holmes who works for the
government, although he has not yet risen to the heights he later achieves when
Doctor Watson was Holmes’ biographer.
Stamford is a self-deprecating young man who already feels great awe for Holmes’ superior brain power, and he is amazed when Holmes tells him that Mycroft possesses greater powers of observation and reasoning than he himself has. Stamford meets Mycroft when he visits his brother to request his aid in a very sensitive matter. A government official, Mr Anthony Cloudsdale, has vanished after delivering some confidential government documents and there are several suspicious aspects to his disappearance, including the fact that on his way back to his office Cloudsdale had narrowly avoided being injured, or even killed, in an incident that may not have been as accidental as it appeared. Cloudsdale has a reputation as a very reliable and honest man and his government employers believe that it is unlikely that he should have done anything dishonourable, so the assumption is that he has come to harm. Mycroft is concerned about the security aspects of Cloudsdale’s disappearance but his main reason for getting involved and asking Holmes to investigate is the fear that Joshua Emmett, a close, long-time friend of Mycroft’s is under suspicion. Mycroft is adamant that Emmett is not capable of violence or treason, however, it is true that he could make good use of extra money. He lives with his mother in a very modest manner and is saving to accumulate enough money to marry his devoted sweetheart, a very beautiful young woman.
The torso of a man’s body is recovered from the River Thames and, even though there are no identifying marks, and another woman claims it belongs to her husband, certain personal possessions found nearby cause the partial body to be identified as Cloudsdale, Despite the best efforts of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, the evidence against Emmett grows more overwhelming. Surprisingly it is Stamford’s simple and straightforward way of looking at things that puts Holmes onto the track that reveals the truth in a case of treason and cruelty that radically changes the lives of both Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes
and the Mycroft Incident is the seventh
book in the series that recounts the adventures in The Early Casebook of
Sherlock Holmes. It is a novel which has excellent characterisation and a
complex, cleverly constructed plot, which is far darker in tone than the
earlier books in this series. This is an interesting, immaculately researched
novel, which I recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron
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