Body on Baker Street

August 1, 2017

The appearance of Renalta Van Markoff, the best-selling author of a controversial Holmes and Watson mystery series, at Gemma Doyle's bookshop is going swimmingly until Renalta falls over dead. Gemma's uncanny Sherlockian skills are called on in this delightful follow-up to Elementary, She Read. Sure to please fans of Holmes pastiches and bookstore mysteries.--LH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 3, 2017
Cozy fans fond of Conan Doyle are most likely to enjoy Delany’s second whodunit featuring Gemma Doyle, the proprietor of a Massachusetts bookstore specializing in Sherlockiana (after Elementary, She Read). Gemma scrambles when Renalta Van Markoff, a bestselling author, asks to hold a book signing in two days. Renalta’s romance series, featuring Mrs. Desdemona Hudson as Holmes’s lover, has a devoted following, and the event draws a huge crowd. But tragedy strikes when the flamboyant author is poisoned after drinking from a bottle of water Gemma supplied. Suspects include a Sherlockian outraged by the liberties Renalta has taken with the canon and a woman who alleges that Renalta stole the series idea from her. Gemma’s unable to resist risky amateur sleuthing, including a scheme to break into police headquarters that will leave readers who haven’t bought into the character and the conceit groaning. Gemma’s deductive skills fail to impress, given the shaky foundations for some of her conclusions. Agent: Kim Lionetti, BookEnds Literary Agency.

July 15, 2017
A sleuthing bookstore owner may be too clever for her own good.English transplant Gemma Doyle owns the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium and, together with her friend Jayne, the adjacent Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room in a coastal Massachusetts town. Linda Marke, personal assistant to bestselling author Renalta Van Markoff, excites and alarms Gemma by asking her to host Renalta's book signing in two days' time. Leaving her assistant to keep things running, Gemma dives into everything that must be done, including a list of special requests from Renalta, and soon all is ready to welcome the flamboyant author, who has many fans and more than a few enemies. Renalta's protagonist is Baker Street landlady Mrs. Hudson, who is having an affair with Holmes and often outdoes him in the investigative department, an idea Gemma's friend Donald Morris finds repugnant. While having dinner out with Jayne, Gemma is treated to the spectacle of Renalta, her publicist, Kevin, and Linda listening to a tirade from a woman named Paige, who accuses her of stealing the idea for her first book. Both Donald and Paige cause a scene at the signing, but Renalta is merely amused until she drinks from one of the special water bottles she ordered and keels over dead from what Gemma immediately suspects is cyanide poisoning. The fact that Gemma and Detective Ryan Ashburton have a past and maybe a future may be the reason Detective Louise Estrada warns her to stay out of the case after clashing with her over a previous murder (Elementary, She Read, 2017). Gemma, who has no intention of letting Donald be blamed for the crime, turns up many well-hidden secrets that point to other suspects. Remarkably, the heroine, who is often indeed annoyingly like Sherlock Holmes, manages to solve the mystery without alienating all her friends.

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