Customer Reviews

The Baker Street Letters

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's a great idea -- that one of the modern office buildings that now occupy the space on the northernmost stretch of Baker Street where Sherlock Holmes once hung his deerstalker hat now has an obligation to respond to letters addressed to the great detective at 221B Baker Street, a century or so after his battles with criminals like the infamous Moriarty were last published. In this detective novel, which is far more cozy than Holmesian, the duty of replying to that correspondence (with a form letter) falls to a law firm run by Reggie Heath; the duty is discharged by his brother, Nigel, waiting to be reinstated with the law society after some well-intended deeds had unexpected consequences. Nigel, it seems, hasn't learned his lesson, as the exasperated Reggie realizes early in the book, when Nigel fails to show up at his reinstatement hearing. He's somehow become unduly fascinated with the Holmes correspondence, and has dashed off to Los Angeles to help an 8-year-old girl who wrote a letter pleading for help finding her father more than a decade earlier. The problem? Not only does making direct contact with these letter writers violate the terms of the Heath lease, but Nigel has left a dead body behind in his office, brained with his prize Remington sculpture.

The concept is great fun, but the plotting and writing skills fall short of what is needed to pull this off. There are some very obvious plot devices, as Reggie goes chasing after Nigel to retrieve him, only to stumble headlong into more mystery and murder. Robertson seems to be trying to emulate the style of Alexander McCall Smith's excellent Mma Ramotswe mystery stories, but Robertson's characters never appealed to me as much -- they never felt as vivid or alive as McCall Smith's, just self-consciously quirky. The writing is pedestrian and too often clunky and uneven. When Reggie discovers Nigel's disappearance, he sees a group of people clustered around his brother's office, peers in through its window and sees chaos: file cabinet drawers hanging by their hinges, books on the floor and papers everywhere. "Nigel had gone off again," is all that Robertson can muster in terms of an insight into Reggie's state of mind. Wow, no kidding. The intent could be to make the reader see Reggie's limited emotional range, but if so, it doesn't work. Robertson hasn't mastered irony or nuance. The plot may be an intriguing one, but I found myself having to work to follow it. The requisite twists and turns in the mystery didn't always work well, either -- no spoilers here, except to say that the presence of later and possibly forged letters from the young girl, Mara Ramirez, is introduced in the earliest pages and then not raised again for more than 100 pages, even though that seems to be at the hub of the mystery. There are too many loose ends left to dangle for too long to make this work for me as a mystery reader.

I don't think fans of Sherlock Holmes (or his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle) will get as big a charge from the book's contents as they will from the premise. It might appeal to readers who enjoy cozy mysteries, although I wouldn't rank it among the best offerings in that genre, either. Mystery fans who favor "cozies" may still find something to enjoy if they're looking for something a bit different, but I'd strongly suggest finding a library copy or at least waiting until it's out in paperback. For my part, I'm off to re-read the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries, to remind myself of Conan Doyle's skill with character and plot.

Mr. Robertson has an interesting premise but it seems to fall flat at times. A letter from an eight year old girl who writes to Sherlock Holmes seems a little odd at first. I took a little believability to question the fact that someone would write to a fictional character. Yet the dialogue and the story line flows fairly well.

I found Nigel to be reckless and down right annoying at times. Reggie was just trying to piece everything together. There were times that he even began to question what he was doing in America. Doubting the main reason for being there and wondering if he could help his brother out of the hole he had dug himself into. The side characters were there but never really seemed to bring the novel forward much.

An interesting premise yet it lacked something. I really liked it but the ending seemed rushed. I liked how all the pieces did finally fit together. I was pleasantly surprised with the lengths the criminals went to keep the secrets buried. A little over the top at times, but I was curious what the author had for the motives behind it all. I expected a lot more out of this book than what I got. It wasn't a book I felt I had to read just had hoped for more than what I got in the end.

The premise for this book had such great potential, unfortunately the writing just didn't meet that great potential. I found the actual story to be very boring. Clues appeared in awkward places. I'm surprised that I actually finished the book as I found that I not only did not care for the characters or really about the solution to the mystery. I was very disappointed as I was hoping for a good contemporary mystery with a tie-in to Sherlock Holmes.

Michael Robertson is a new and powerful writer of which I have put at the very top of my must reads. I stumbled across The Baker Street Letters while vacationing in the Bahamas and thought it would be a nice distraction - I had no idea that it would grip me thoroughly and that I would not let it out of my hands until the mesmerizing conclusion. I was hypnotized! I can understand how some might only give the fascinating The Baker Street Letters only four stars (i.e. the topic is not unfamiliar, though the treatment is fresh and and innovative) but anything less must be from those who are creatures of routine and are incapable of appreciating Robertson's unique, engrossing style, and studied pace. This man is a powerhouse! I cannot wait to read his next book: The Brothers of Baker Street. Mark my words, Robertson is in a class all his own - I can only hope we will be seeing more ground-breaking novels from him.

I stumbled across this very entertaining novel and thoroughly enjoyed it. The primary characters, brothers, are easy to like and the plot is a good one. Any Sherlock Holmes fan will find some pleasure in this one.

I purchased The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson for my Kindle and can't put it down. I've envisioned Michael Sheen (Tony Blair redux)as Reggie Heath older and suposedly wiser brother and Jeremy Sisto as the younger ne'er do well but goodhearted brother. The plot is fresh and we'll see if it is sustainable. I see this much more like a Lifetime series of cozy mysteries. Like Simon and Simon of TV fame only with British accents and living in London. I'm about halfway through and had to stop to praise the plotting and the character development. I sincerely hope there will be a sequel to this series. I will need to charge my Kindle in the meantime. This is highly enjoyable and save for the few phrasings that stand out that this is an English author, I am thoroughly enjoying it. You should do yourself a favor and enjoy it as well.

The concept was intriguing and there were moments of excellent writing, but the book needed serious professional editing. With more consistent writing and fewer unlikely coincidences, this could be an more enjoyable read. BHA

I picked up the book after reading the cover notes about a business that is located at the address that the character Sherlock Holmes inhabited and the results of mail sent to Mr. Holmes. The story that ensues is lite, trite, with disappointing characters that are astute one moment and thick as a brick the next. The characters are not believable, the story drags and has the most unsatisfying ending. Put this one back on the shelf and ....walk away.

I was happy that I was able to borrow this from the library. It was a quick read, but not at all satisfying. Neither the characters, the plot, nor the locations grabbed or held my interest to any great degree. The connection to Sherlock Holmes was overplayed in the publisher's review--it hardly mattered to the premise.

Super premise for a book, I thought. How clever! How disappointing actually. The characters never fully developed, even for fiction things went just a little too far and it felt rushed and thrown together at the end.