The Brothers of Baker Street

The Brothers of Baker Street
by Michael Robertson
St. Martin's, 2011. 274 pgs. Fiction

Reggie Heath has law offices at 221B Baker Street and is required by the terms of his lease to respond to any correspondence directed to Sherlock Holmes at that address. Luckily he can fob that responsibility off on his somewhat estranged brother Nigel who lives in Los Angeles. As our story begins, a shapely solicitor enter Reggie's offices to ask him to defend a client, a Black Cab driver accused of murdering an American tourist couple. Reggie doesn't take criminal cases since he accidentally freed a wife-killer who went straight home and murdered his mother-in-law, but makes an exception after he meets the driver who has worked so hard for The Knowledge required in his profession, and who seems unlikely to have done the deed. An anonymous letter tips him off to security cameras that vindicate his client who is freed and then killed. Things get even more interesting at this point, as the threatening letters continue, Reggie goes to jail, Nigel comes home to try to bail him out, and Reggie's former girlfriend (who just may be coming back) gets into the really scary soup trying to help. The Brothers of Baker Street is funny, atmospheric, and smart but one should be aware, as I was not, that it is the second book in a series which begins with The Baker Street Letters.