Sherlock Holmes and the Crimson Demon by James Lovegrove

Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon by James Lovegrove

Because James Lovegrove has written a trilogy of Sherlock Holmes stories in which the great detective encounters Cthulhu, it’s an open question going into this novel whether or not there will be a literal Christmas demon. This is not the Holmes of the Cthulhu books, but the traditional canonical detective. He is highly skeptical (to put it lightly) of anything smelling of the supernatural and this book has a lot of clues in it which require Holmes to hold his nose.

 

Overall, it reads like a pretty traditional Holmes novel. A young heiress has encountered a situation that seems to threaten her sanity, and if she loses her sanity, she also loses the fortune she’s about to come into. Her father doesn’t appear to be very sympathetic to her and is actually arranging circumstances that one could reasonably anticipate would disqualify her from her inheritance (which would give a third of it to his son). So, what is actually happening and how does the possible ghost of the girl’s mother who is alleged to have committed suicide a year before factor into things?

 

It's a fun mystery with a lot of things going on in it. I did not figure out the solution in advance, but was satisfied with Holmes’ account of the criminal acts. And seeing Sherlock Holmes overcome his inhibitions and embrace the Christmas spirit was nice too.