#Titanuary ‘Sherlock Holmes and The Christmas Demon’ by James Lovegrove

About the book….

It is 1890, and in the days before Christmas Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson are visited at Baker Street by a new client. Eve Allerthorpe – eldest daughter of a grand but somewhat eccentric Yorkshire-based dynasty – is greatly distressed, as she believes she is being haunted by a demonic Christmas spirit.

Her late mother told her terrifying tales of the sinister Black Thurrick, and Eve is sure that she has seen the creature from her bedroom window. What is more, she has begun to receive mysterious parcels of birch twigs, the Black Thurrick’s calling card…

Eve stands to inherit a fortune if she is sound in mind, but it seems that something – or someone – is threatening her sanity. Holmes and Watson travel to the Allerthorpe family seat at Fellscar Keep to investigate, but soon discover that there is more to the case than at first appeared. There is another spirit haunting the family, and when a member of the household is found dead, the companions realise that no one is beyond suspicion.

Huge thanks to the awesome team at Titan Books for my gifted review copy of ‘Sherlock Holmes & the Christmas Demon’, which was published in hardcover in October 2019, and subsequently in ebook and paperback.

It’s the archetpal Holmesian narrative, beginning with an action sequence in which Father Christmas is arrested, following the presentation of a woman in peril who appeals to Holmes and Watson for help.

Eva Allerthorpe, 5 days away from collecting an inheritence which will give a freedom rarely afforded to women at this time, believes she is being haunted. Firstly by the death of her mother who, appears to have gone through great periods of depression, culminating in throwing herself off the battlements of Fellscar Keep. Secondly, there a is folkoric legend named ‘Black Thurrick’ who carries off wilful children and is a Krampus-esque opposite to Father Christmas, he takes away rather than gives.

If she can keep her wits and her sanity, she will collect this money that her aunt has left her and will be able to move away. If not, the money will be split between the rem aining cousins and her brother Erasmus. Holmes and Watson are intrigued, it’s a central motif in Holmesian fiction that the logic and science of deduction prove superstition and belief to be commonly held misconceptions.

They make haste to Yorkshire to find a less than warm welcome, a divided family on edge at a time when families should be coming together. A quick survey of the grounds and the castle shows that there is little way and opportunity for anyone to leave the bundles of twigs -Black Thurrick’s calling card-outside the miscreants window. Sherlock and Watson spar back and forth in a wonderfully familiar and warming fashion, Watson dropping carelessly delivered lines which somehow cut through Holmesian analysis and allowing Holmes to see the truth of several situations.

It’s a brilliant winter-y mystery which looks into the expectations of family and how they hold you close to the point of suffocation and the sense of ownership that the older generation have towards the younger one. The Allerthorps want younger son Erasmus-Raz- to take over the family business, which Raz has absolutely no passion for, is matched with the frustration of his father who feels he does not have much longer to train Raz to manage the estate after his death.

Eva is being groomed to be a good and dutiful wife who will stifle her creative urges under her marital yoke, and this inheritence from her aunt Jocasta is absolutely life changing.

Add in the mystery of Eva’s mother’s death, a grieving family who are trying to move on with the Victorian values in full display, and you have an intriguing murder mystery which Holmes is keen to use science to solve whilst Watson aims for a psychological approach in tackling this family dynamic.

I am always there for Holmes’ continuing adventures, and James has the mannerisms and banter between the old friends down pat, it feels like settling into your favourite chair, that exact same satisfying ‘Ahhhhhh….’ and shutting off of the outside world. I really enjoyed it!

About the author…

James Lovegrove is the New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Odin. He was short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1998 and for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2004, and also reviews fiction for the Financial Times. He is the author of the Dragon-Award winning Firefly: The Ghost Machine, Firefly: The Magnificent Nine, and Firefly: Big Damn Hero with Nancy Holder. He has written many acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels, including Sherlock Holmes & the Christmas Demon.