THE MYCROFT MEMORANDA

by Ray Walsh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 25, 1985

Unlike Dan Stashower's fairly zesty Holmes-meets-Houdini concoction (above), this latest attempt to link Sherlock Holmes with Jack the Ripper is talky, strained, and laboriously whimsical. Asked by Scotland Yard (and the Queen herself) to help out with the Ripper investigations circa 1888, Holmes dons prostitute-disguise to check out Jack's East End milieu. Then he and Watson engage the services of a flinty local wench to be the bait in a trap-the-Ripper scheme--with half-successful results: the Ripper isn't caught, but he's seen. . . and seems to look just like Dr. Watson! Could it be Well, not quite: it's Dr. W.'s brother Henry. So, while poor Dr. Watson recuperates from physical and psychic wounds (tended by Dr. A. Conan Doyle, of course), Holmes and brother Mycroft arrange for Henry to be quietly ""executed""--but keep the matter absolutely secret. Complete with pedantic appendices re the documentary evidence and the Holmes/Ripper literature: a stiff, undramatic exercise for Baker Street Irregulars only. (Ripper aficionados are unlikely to stick around once they realize that the villain here is unmasked as the fictional brother of a fictional character.)

Pub Date: Feb. 25, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION