In Harris' Sherlock Holmes pastiche, WWII is raging in England, and Holmes is called in by Scotland Yard to investigate a series of gruesome murders. The killer, who leaves his signature, "Crimson Jack," at the scene of each crime, targets prostitutes, stabbing and then disemboweling them. Holmes quickly sees that the killings bear an unmistakable similarity to those of Jack the Ripper, 50 years earlier. With the help of his loyal sidekick, Watson; ambitious American reporter Gail Preston; and military intelligence officer Philip Rayner, Holmes races against time to stop Crimson Jack. What he discovers is a plot involving the highest levels of government, Nazi Germany, a decades-old spy ring, and a man set on exacting retribution. Harris successfully captures Holmes' brilliance, talent, and arrogance, as well as Watson's dogged devotion to Holmes and the atmosphere in London during the dark days of war. The case he has imagined for Holmes to solve is both thoroughly challenging and pleasingly multilayered. A satisfying, albeit gruesome, read.

As Harris (The Thirty-One Kings) explains in the preface, the Sherlock Holmes films made and set in the 1940s starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce inspired him to transplant Holmes and Watson to the same period in this superior pastiche. In 1942, with London under nighttime blackout restrictions, a serial murderer modeling himself on Jack the Ripper has struck twice. Holmes is called in by Inspector Lestrade after the second killing, which, like the first, happened on an anniversary of a Ripper murder. The current killer leaves his chosen nickname, Crimson Jack, emblazoned in red chalk near the bodies. Efforts to keep the savage murders a secret fail, and the ensuing panic has broader consequences, including a clamor to lift the blackout so that Londoners can travel at night safely. With less than a month until the expected date of the next killing, Holmes pursues every reasonable theory, including the possibility that Crimson Jack is a descendant of the Ripper. Besides providing the duo with a worthy challenge, Harris makes his Watson an intelligent and competent sidekick. Both the strong characterization and plot bode well for a sequel. (June)