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Rating: 
Summary: Academic Evil
Review: John Hall has now published seven Holmes-Watson pastiches, counting this one, and all have been entirely enjoyable, with the possible exception of the very first, THE TRAVELS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, about which I "ha' me doots." He has also been "guilty of several monographs" of Holmesian scholarship, again seven. And he has written mysteries set in modern times.He gets Watson's style and personality down quite well, and is enough of a Holmes scholar to have some real fun with byways of the Canon. In this novel it is 1903, Holmes and Watson don't see much of one another, and there are nasty doings at the little-known but ultra-prestigious Abbey School, where the most powerful men of the British Empire send their sons. A wealthy student has been expelled for a petty theft he obviously did not commit, and his expulsion is immediately followed by the mysterious death of a schoolmaster who has been previously overheard, by students, muttering about a "shocking situation." When Holmes is asked to take the case, the faculty stonewall him totally, so he is forced to send Watson in disguise to fill in temporarily for the dead teacher of english, and to cast about for clues and information. There are some deliberate echoes of "The Priory School," a case said to have taken place just a few years earlier. The goals of the three revealed villains sound plausible to me, as deduced by Holmes, but they conveniently come to nasty ends before any confession, leaving certain plot points unresolved. As usual in Breese books, misprints are very few. In fact, I noticed only one. On p. 19 the character named Watson Minor is called Watson Major. [There is a Major, but he is not in that scene.] Here are 160 pages of Holmes and Watson that won't insult your intelligence, your literary standards, or your love of the characters. [Take particular note of the new career Watson is contemplating on pages 25!] Recommended.
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