The Final Problem by Arturo Perez-Revert

This is far more than a tip to the deerstalker hat that Sherlock Holmes wore, but rather a huge puff to the gourd Calabash pipe he smoked.

Nearly retired actor Ormond Basil, best known for the 15 movies in which he starred as the world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, finds himself stranded on the Greek Island of Utakos due to a storm. We have the usual array of guests and the hotel staff, and of course, the obligatory suspicious death. Was it suicide or was it murder?

With the police unable to come to the island due to the storm, the investigation falls to Ormond. The question is, will the observatory and detective skills that he displayed in the movies where he played Sherlock Holmes actually be transferable to a real-life mystery?

There are numerous references to the Sherlock Holmes novels, which are a delightful addition and ensure the books sit firmly alongside the detective novels of Agatha Christie and Sir Conan Doyle. The story ambles along at the perfect pace, with clues regularly revealed that keep the reader engaged and guessing and in awe of the skills of our pseudo-Sherlock Holmes.

This is a wonderful read with the crisp, polite English dialogue mixed with the foreign voices of the guests, which provides a real smorgasbord of style. The plot is the classic “locked room”, but it works perfectly. In the absence of Watson, there is an array of guests who fill his role sporadically but with the same wonderment and awe of the detectives' seemingly amazing powers.

Fans of John Buchan, Agatha Christie and of course Sir Conan Doyle will fall in love with this book.

Reviewer: Chris Casey

Atlantic Books