First Review of The Dutch Painter

 So...it's still available to subscribers only on Booklist, but I have the okay to share with you the first review of

The Strange Case of the Dutch Painter:

The Holmes pastiche industry rolls on. This time we don't have a newly unearthed Watsonmanuscript with a waspish Holmes and boneheaded Watson. Rather, the great man isconcealing his identity under a borrowed name, Vernet. Appropriate, since he's distantly relatedto the artistic Vernet family and the case he's working is art theft. The ersatz Watson, there to aidthe investigation, is art maven Lermolieff, who understands his job is to observe Holmes-Vernetas well as record the investigation. He has much to offer, from first finding the bloodhound "acarnival attraction that took in clues and spat out solutions," to understanding that deduction"was a mask for his real passion: justice." Their inquiry takes them through the Parisian art worldin the waning nineteenth century and features encounters outlandish and entertaining. Holmesinvestigates van Gogh's suicide and crosses swords—literally—with Gauguin, while Lermolieffgets the world's first electroshock treatment. It's a fine tale, stylishly written.— Don Crinklaw