Sherlock Holmes Book Reviews - A World of Wolves

"A Brilliant Holmes Adventure Comprised of Two Gripping Mysteries Involving the Velvet Underworld of Victorian England" 4/5 Stars Reedsy

A World of Wolves: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery by MX Publishing is a book of two overlapping crime stories connected with the world of the flesh trade, in which Holmes and his associates take on the wily kingpins of the velvet underworld of Victorian England. The first happens in Cambridge, around 1868, and the second in London, around 1893. The brothers Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes investigate the first, and Holmes learns crime investigation from Mycroft. During the period when Holmes was presumed dead, following his fatal encounter with Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls in May 1891, Inspector Lestrade and Dr. Watson come close to solving the second, but get stuck at the end. Upon his return, Holmes supplies the missing pieces of the puzzle and helps Lestrade and Watson complete it.

The book pays silent tribute to the plight of poor girls, many of them minors, who have been lost to sex trafficking throughout history. Those who trap them either kill them or force them into a life of exploitation in vice dens because they are too powerful for the victims to resist successfully. As the operations of this vast, ruthless, criminal empire are all too well known, I will not go into further detail here.

The author is highly descriptive and doesn’t make any bones about presenting the cold, harsh facts that expose the reprehensible mistreatment women suffer at the hands of flesh trade actors. Outraged by these injustices, many noble souls, including those not directly related to the victims, fight back. Holmes himself provides a glowing example. At barely fourteen years of age, he engages in an all-out struggle against a murderous, strong man involved in the trade to rescue a thirteen-year-old girl from his clutches. Despite being only a boy, he proves a worthy match for the man and saves her. Holmes's bravery, compassion, and unselfish concern for the unfortunate girl deeply moved me. Although she ultimately does not survive, his kindness brings her comfort in her final moments (see pp. 80–87).

What makes this book stand out apart from the foreboding world of the sex trade that forms its backdrop is the author’s innovativeness in writing two interlinked mysteries spaced 25 years apart. Although the villain escapes justice in the first, he meets his nemesis in the second. Consequently, instead of two stories, you could also treat it as one large, 25-year-long story with four investigators. The stories are intellectually stimulating, gripping, and entertaining. The map of Cambridge that immediately follows the copyright page and the individual page footnotes, lumped together in the endnotes, by facilitating a deeper perception of the scenes, greatly enhance the pleasure of reading. This is a novel feature that I haven’t found in most Sherlock Holmes pastiches that I’ve reviewed lately. Therefore, it rightly deserves a word of praise. That said, one problem I encountered is a fair number of minor English-language errors in it. Another is the small print size of the text—I needed 40% magnification to read it comfortably.

While I would very much have liked to award it five stars, the above-mentioned flaws force me to assign it only 4.

As a highly entertaining read, I recommend this book to Holmes's fans all over the English-speaking world. Additionally, because Sherlock Holmes naturally appeals to those who love crime/detective fiction, I also recommend it to anyone interested in the genre.

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About This Book:

"The fire was almost down to its embers by the time I'd finished reading. The comfort of our rooms did nothing to efface the startling impression left upon me by Holmes's narrative. I passed my hand over my brow. "My head's in a whirl," I remarked, barely able to voice my feelings. My friend rubbed his hands together, an intense expression settling upon his hawk-like features. "I confess that for some time," he said, "that sickening trade became an idée fixe with me. I would scour the papers for news of missing girls, for clues that might bring the whole monstrous business tumbling down upon their heads."

I discovered that it was a simple thing to find the proofs. Almost impossible to stop the trade. For these people have agents in all walks of life. They are cunning, without remorse. There are no subterfuges too artful for them. Women and girls—often poor, young, and alone—are easy pickings. They are the prey in a world of wolves.

1868: Cambridge. A young Sherlock Holmes accompanies his brother, Mycroft, to Cambridge to investigate a curious death, in a case which will prove formative for both brothers.

1893: London. Doctor Watson, still mourning the apparent death of his friend, is invited by Inspector Lestrade to consult on a gruesome murder, which has all the hallmarks of the Ripper. Two cases. Four investigators. A locked-room mystery. A trunk murder. Missing girls. And a conspiracy involving the highest echelons of Victorian society. All linked by one, bloody thread.