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Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: For some reason I enjoyed this novel a bit more than the other Holmes pastiches produced by the prolific Val Andrews over the past couple of years. In fact, I read it in one sitting, not too difficult since it weighs in at only 123 pages.Perhaps I like it because it is a bit more traditional in structure than the usual Andrews Holmes novel. The leader and founder of a non-religious monastic order inhabiting the old Grimstone Priory comes to Baker Street with a strange problem for Holmes. Two of the order's seven members have died shortly after receiving letters, and a third member has just received a similar letter. Holmes and Watson join the order as two replacements for the dead monks (the number of monks is maintained at precisely seven), and Holmes proceeds to investigate, soon deciding that the key to the murders lies in an unsolved jewel robbery which occurred at Grimstone years before, when it was the family home of the Grimstones. There are a number of echoes of HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, which is explicitly referred to, and (as all too often in Holmes pastiches) the approach adopted by the villain is preposterously roundabout and indirect, considering his goal as ultimately revealed. [He could have "harvested" the large perch and vanished at any time, without subjecting the monks, Holmes and Watson to 95 pages of ultimately irrelevant antics, but then, I guess, we should have had no novel!] There are some nice characterizations, some good surprises, and a pleasant read in store for anyone who tries this particular Andrews novel.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: For some reason I enjoyed this novel a bit more than the other Holmes pastiches produced by the prolific Val Andrews over the past couple of years. In fact, I read it in one sitting, not too difficult since it weighs in at only 123 pages. Perhaps I like it because it is a bit more traditional in structure than the usual Andrews Holmes novel. The leader and founder of a non-religious monastic order inhabiting the old Grimstone Priory comes to Baker Street with a strange problem for Holmes. Two of the order's seven members have died shortly after receiving letters, and a third member has just received a similar letter. Holmes and Watson join the order as two replacements for the dead monks (the number of monks is maintained at precisely seven), and Holmes proceeds to investigate, soon deciding that the key to the murders lies in an unsolved jewel robbery which occurred at Grimstone years before, when it was the family home of the Grimstones. There are a number of echoes of HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, which is explicitly referred to, and (as all too often in Holmes pastiches) the approach adopted by the villain is preposterously roundabout and indirect, considering his goal as ultimately revealed. [He could have "harvested" the large perch and vanished at any time, without subjecting the monks, Holmes and Watson to 95 pages of ultimately irrelevant antics, but then, I guess, we should have had no novel!] There are some nice characterizations, some good surprises, and a pleasant read in store for anyone who tries this particular Andrews novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Diverting slice of Holmes-iana
Review: This is the liveliest and most diverting of the Val Andrews patiche Holmes novels ,mainly I think because it is relatively traditional in approach and correspondingly feels slightly more authentic than most of the others.
Holmes and Watson go undercover as members of a secular monastic society in Sussex ,where two of the seven members have recently died following receipt of a letter from an unknown source.The prior is anxious to ensure the group is not further depleted.
The mystery proves linked to the theft some years earlier of a precious jewel and before the solution is revealed we get ersatz "ghostly"appearances from Roundheads and Cavaliers ,the wholesale slaughter of livestock and fish ,not to mention a guest appearance from Inspector Lestrade. There is an explicit reference to The Hound of the Baskervilles in the text and the similarities are there ,although Andrews operates on a much lower level of competence and ambition .As with that novel Holmes is absent for much of the running time and there is a red herring in the form of a supernatural undertone ,which proves to be a cloak for the flesh and blood nature of the crime and the novel is set in a remote part of the British Isles.
Things get a little more philosophical than usual in the last 10 or so pages with Watson revealed as having qualms about capital punishment .These are slightly at odds with the rest of the book which is an enjoyable and lightweight read
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