Baskerville

April 15, 2013
British journalist O’Connell (For the Love of Letters) fails to make the most of his first novel’s central conflict: the up-and-down relationship between Arthur Conan Doyle and Bertram Fletcher Robinson, who shared in the creation of what many consider the greatest Holmes adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles. In 1900, aboard a troop ship about to leave South Africa, Doyle, who’s been serving as a doctor in the Boer War, encounters Robinson, a journalist and sports writer returning home to England. During the voyage, the two become friends and collaborators. In an afterword, the author explains how he elaborated on the skimpy historical record. For example, Doyle claimed in later years that Robinson supplied only the idea for the plot, while in this retelling, Robinson composes a draft of what he calls The Wolf of the Baskervilles, which has a solution that Doyle ridicules. Serious Sherlockians will best appreciate this uneven mix of fact and fiction. Agent: Antony Topping, Greene & Heaton (U.K.)

June 15, 2013

Melodrama meets metafiction in this delightfully literary thriller. The year is 1900, and Bertram Fletcher Robinson, fresh from reporting on the British victory at Mafeking, South Africa, is homeward-bound when he has a chance encounter with his literary idol, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It has been seven years since Doyle sent his most beloved creation--and best-selling publishing career--over the Reichenbach Falls. Impressed by Robinson's idea for a detective story, Doyle proposes a partnership and the resurrection of Sherlock Holmes. Robinson is thrilled to be working with his literary ideal but when The Hound of the Baskervilles is published, only one author receives credit. VERDICT This tightly constructed debut novel is a page-turner packed with historical details. Sure to be well received by fans of Holmes and literary thrillers alike, O'Connell's tale might be especially appreciated by readers who enjoy the works of Matthew Pearl, Sarah Waters, Simon Winchester, and Erik Larson.--Liv Hanson, Chicago

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