Greetings,
There is something frightening about watching classic, and even legendary, stories and characters get tossed into that unpredictable abyss known as...The Public Domain! It is where wonderful works of art can be grabbed up by anyone and turned into something not so wonderful at all. I'm lookin' at you, Oz, The Great and Powerful. Honestly, the whole thing is just a crap shoot. However, there is a light at the end of this tunnel. And that is the fact that a precious few have taken all of those previously owned IP's and made them into something that is worth taking a look at. For example, everyone knows that one of my favorite shows, and currently one of the only ones I watch, is Elementary, an updated look at Sherlock Holmes. And I like it because I know why they made the changes they did and it makes sense. For me, if you can put a unique spin on something, I'm willing to at least check it out. So, that said, I had to take a gander at a book called The Baker Street Letters.
The Baker Street Letters is a 2009 novel by Michael Robertson, and the story centers around the Heath brothers, Reggie and Nigel. They are lawyers, more or less (more on that later), and they inhabit a very famous address: 221B Baker Street. As it turns out, one of the clauses in their lease is that they must answer all of the letters that people send to that address, specifically, to Sherlock Holmes. But they are supposed to answer them and nothing more. They are certainly not supposed to contact anyone in person.
However, as Nigel, the younger brother, awaits to see where his future as a lawyer lies after he getting into some trouble concerning a client, he decides to do just that. He contacts the writer of a decades old letter, but only after a supposed, but suspicious, follow up letter arrives, in order to solve a mystery. Unfortunately, they brothers are caught up in a mystery of their own, and Reggie is left to clean up a mess that his brother may have made, leading him across the ocean to Los Angeles for the first adventure to spawn from the titular letters.
As you can see, this is not a straight up reboot or reimagining of the Holmes stories, which is a nice change. You may say the author is using the Baker Street and Sherlock thing as a gimmick, which he might be, but in my opinion, a gimmick is okay if you can follow it up with some good material. I happen to think he did so with this, the first book in an ongoing series. To be honest, whilst this isn't an updated Sherlock story that you might find on my beloved Elementary, or that other show on the BBC, it does have a few aspects that may remind you of the characters.
Other readers and I may be wrong about this, but the brothers do seem like they are a Holmes and Watson team of sorts, if only through their disposition. Reggie seems to be quite arrogant and is very focused on his work, as well as being a bit cold, whilst Nigel is far more kind, understanding and really wanting to help people who need it. And these differences appear to be magnified when it concerns the woman in their life, an actress named Laura, who is Reggie's "on again/off again", and Nigel's..."used to be". Is that even a thing? It is now. And it's too complicated to get into here. However, it does add even more depth to the characters and the strained relationship between the brothers.
If I had to make a big complaint about this book, it would be the fact that it takes place mainly in L.A., as I mentioned. That seems more like something that would be a good plot for a third installment in the series. I mean, if your main premise is the whole "We work at 221B Baker Street" thing, I'd think that you'd want to center your first story around that and stay there. It's like how they made that Emma Roberts Nancy Drew movie and did NOT set it River Heights. But I got a bit of a kick out of that film. And as far as this book goes, just because I may disagree with the chosen setting, that doesn't mean the story isn't good. And I think it is.
So, whilst this may not be exactly what your hardcore..."Sherlockians" are looking for, I found the story enjoyable and I like the characters enough that I'm choosing to continue on with reading the series. And the Holmes thing aside, if you're looking to start a new series with a pretty decent mystery, I say give The Baker Street Letters a whirl.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
