‘Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident’ by Martin Davies

Published by Allison and Busby,
20 February 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-74903201-2 (HB)

‘Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident’ is the seventh novel in Davies’s Holmes and Hudson series. Sherlock Holmes is kicking his heels with no investigation that meets his demanding requirements on the immediate horizon until the arrival of General Septimus Octavian Nuno Pellinsky, Count of Kosadam, Hereditary Guardian of the Monks of St Stephen and Adjutant General to the House of Capricorn who ‘had almost as many titles on his card as he had brass buttons on his uniform’. As the splendidly-named Flotsam says as she ushers Pellinsky into Holmes’s presence, despite having experience of announcing great people, ‘few of them filled the room in quite the same way as General Pellinsky.’ Flotsam is Holmes’s maid and Mrs Hudson’s sidekick; as well as narrating the story she is in truth the heroine of it.

Pellinsky is the emissary of the Grand Duchy of Rosenau, the stable future of which is vital to peace in the Balkans (there is more than an echo here of the troubles before the outbreak of World War I). The current ruler, Archduke Quintus, is 73 and has no direct heir following the recent death of his younger brother. Although the Archduke is currently in sufficiently rude health to conduct ‘an unfortunate series of scandalous affairs with unsuitable women’, Pellinsky explains that if the Archduke were to die tomorrow it would launch a constitutional crisis which could have potentially serious consequences for the region. His only viable successor is the young Count Rudolph Absberg, but for the Count to be the legitimate heir he must get married within six months of becoming heir apparent. His intended is the beautiful and accomplished Princess Sophia Kubinova. Because of the Archduke’s ability to fall out with anybody and everybody, both Count Rudolph and Princess Sophia have lived most of their lives in exile. The wedding is due to take place in England imminently, but the date has been brought forward. There is only one problem: Count Rudolph has gone missing.

And so starts mayhem. This novel is an absolute joy, and I was so engrossed that for the first time since I started reviewing for Mystery People I realised when I was well into it that I hadn’t made any notes at all. The plot hurtles along with constant twists and turns, but when this is added to the vivid, often comic, characters and the author’s turn of phrase, it is hardly surprising that the story is so entertaining. Holmes, Watson and Mrs Hudson seem relatively staid in comparison with many who make an appearance. There is the Irascible (sic, always upper case) Earl of Brabham who berates all and sundry (‘the Earl’s temper was famous for its generous proportions’); the garrulous and jolly Hetty, Flotsam’s friend, who regrets that she is a woman because that prevents her from horsewhipping a scoundrel on the steps of his club, although she doesn’t shrink from giving us a lengthy verbal treatise on the subject instead; and there are many more. To this one could add, amongst other matters, cross-dressing, a ring that turns up where it shouldn’t, boots by a railway line, another missing person – you get the idea. There is a memorable bicycle ride which brings the novel to a suitably comic conclusion.

Davies’s style is highly entertaining, with improbable and unexplained incidents frequently thrown at us. Here’s an example: ‘He was the magistrate when Viscount Barrowby’s scullery maid was found with the pet weasel and the Aramaic prayer book. He was probably the only magistrate in London who would have believed her story.’ We are not, alas, given the chance to believe it or not. And another: ‘We never cease to give thanks for the help you gave our darling daughter over that affair with the hollyhocks’, not further explained, reminds me of the story of Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe and the Prawns, also never further explained, which tantalises us PG Wodehouse lovers every time it is mentioned. And I’d like to get my hands on the book about eighteenth-century stranglers which Holmes leans his pipe against on the mantelpiece.

The novel is billed as ‘A Holmes and Hudson Mystery’, but they both take a back seat to the immensely likeable, highly intelligent and naively courageous Flotsam. Holmes, indeed, disappears for most of the time to North Wales, even if his shadow is always lurking. If you enjoy humour, a good plot and excellent writing in your crime fiction, I urge you to read this book. I haven’t relished one so much for ages. I’m off to find the other six.....
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Reviewer: David Whittle

Martin Davies grew up in North West England. He has travelled widely, including in the Middle East and India, and his plan for THE CONJUROR'S BIRD was put together on a trekking holiday in Greenland. He lives in South West London and works for the BBC as a producer.

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.