The Disappearance of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes Mysteries (Penguin))
Although Sherlock Holmes, in Arthur Conan Doyle's original tales, only  occasionally traveled much beyond London, he and his faithful chronicler, Dr.  John Watson, have become regular globetrotters in Larry Millett's recent Holmes  pastiches. The first four of these novels found the pair hieing off to Minnesota  (not coincidentally, the author's home state), whileThe Disappearance of  Sherlock Holmessends them to New York and Chicago in 1900, one frustrating  step behind conspirators bent on framing them for kidnapping and murder.Two years have passed since Holmes (in Doyle's "The Adventure of the Dancing  Men") captured Abe Slaney, a Chicago gangster who murdered the husband of Elsie  Cubitt, his childhood love. Now, Elsie has gone missing, and clues suggest that  Slaney--though reportedly dead--is behind the snatch. Goaded by a bogus ransom  demand and an enigmatic spiritualist, and perhaps also by the great detective's  uncharacteristic affection for the Widow Cubitt, Holmes and Watson commence a  lively chase that will lead them from a slain Liverpool strumpet to a foggy  standoff at a Manhattan church, a death-defying train ride across Pennsylvania,  and a climactic shootout at a Windy City fraternal hall. Millett's veteran  readers will identify the malign genius behind this conspiracy well before the  last page, and they may be disappointed with the minor role played here by  Minneapolis saloonkeeper and series regular Shadwell Rafferty. Yet the author  adroitly captures the spirit of the Holmes canon, while adding to it a modern  urgency of plot and an infectious curiosity about the historical sites around  which this tale's action occurs. If this novel doesn't surpass Millett'sSherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace  Murdersfor eccentric intrigue, it certainly bristles with shocks and  twists enough to curl Queen Victoria's hair.--J. Kingston Pierce