Tim Major's Sherlock Holmes & The Twelve Thefts of Christmas - Review

Sherlock Holmes and The Twelve Thefts of Christmas by Tim Major

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Join Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they are set a perplexing puzzle.

Morose and uninspired as Christmas approaches, Holmes receives an unexpected invitation to a theatrical performance, thus beginning a challenge set by a face from the past and an investigation into a series of baffling thefts.

Meanwhile, a new client requests Holmes investigate a series of bloody gifts left in the form of dissected meat and animal carcasses, referencing events when he was lost during an expedition in Greenland.

As the mystery deepens, sending Holmes and Watson in dizzying directions, the mysteries grow evermore complex and the endgame more obscure, Watson fearing Holmes is far too distracted to find this solution.

'Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Thefts of Christmas' sees Holmes reacquainted with Irene Adler as he pursues clues left as part of a game of her creation, beginning with a visit to the theatre and the variations in a haunting melody. In this intellectual contest, with more than a little teasing that hints at flirtation, Holmes obsesses over the maze through which 'the woman' leads him - a crossword puzzle sketched over the map of London and its environs.

Tim Major has moulded a fun and enthralling novel; Holmes' wits challenged by an equal, with entertaining diversions into folklore, mythology and skullduggery, alongside hints of the gothic in the case of a series of macabre deliveries, which may be gifts or threats, presenting a mystery with suggestions of the supernatural. Impeccably written with a sprinkling of Christmas magic added to Holmes' masterful detection, this is a fast-paced tale complete with vivid scenes and themes and motifs you'll recognise from Conan Doyle's Holmes stories.

It is testament to Arthur Conan Doyle's writing that characters who made relatively minor appearances have gone on to become so popular and so entwined within the Holmes mythology - Irene Adler being perhaps the second most notable of these. Despite only appearing in one of Conan Doyle's short stories, 'A Scandal in Bohemia', she has gone on to appear in multiple continuation and spin-off stories in print and several screen adaptations. It is Holmes' fascination and respect for her which has earned her the reputation as being the closest to a 'romantic' interest for Holmes, though their attraction is far more intellectual than physical (Holmes remaining closer to asexual than sapiosexual). Major does a superb job at recreating and continuing this relationship.

In addition to Holmes, Watson and Adler, Mrs Hudson and Mary Watson play significant roles. All the lead and supporting characters are marvellously realised, driving the plot as much as the challenge itself. The novel also features real historical characters in Holmes' client and Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his wife, Major taking poetic licence with their real lives intertwined into the narrative and a mystery surrounding Nansen's most recent exploration.

A thoroughly entertaining Yuletide story, 'Sherlock Holmes and the Twelve Thefts of Christmas' is a sublime piece of historical mystery which satisfies like an after-dinner Christmas puzzle.



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