Sunday 2 October 2022

Mrs Hudson and the Blue Daisy Affair (Book Review)

 

Mrs Hudson and the Blue Daisy Affair (A Holmes & Hudson Mystery Book 5) by [Martin Davies] 

Mrs Hudson and the Blue Daisy Affair
(A Holmes and Hudson Mystery, book 5)
by Martin Davies

I've read and reviewed the previous books in this series back in 2016 (1-3) and 2020 (4). By now I've got quite used to, and even fond of, Davies' version of Sherlock Holmes - where mysteries are solved not only "upstairs" but also "downstairs" at Baker Street. While in the original stories Mrs Hudson was Holmes' and Watson's landlady, in these stories she is their housekeeper, who also has help from a maid, Flotsam (Flottie), whom originally she took in as an orphan. With time, Flottie has matured and has become almost as much of a sleuth as Mrs Hudson. They are by now both often taken into the confidence of both Holmes and Watson - and Flottie is even gaining a reputation on her own as trustworthy, by certain clients. 

In this book, Holmes and Watson have more work going than they can handle Things get complicated when on top of other urgent cases they are asked to both protect a radical politician, George Dashing, against a suspected plot by Russian assassins; and investigate a murder for which Dashing's political rival Sir Henry Catanache is suspected. In the midst of it all, Holmes also suddenly seems to be getting competition from a mysterious new detective in town, whose name is beginning to turn up more and more frequently in the London newspapers: Laurence Martin. Flottie starts out helping Holmes and Watson to look for suspicious ads in the newspapers (that may contain coded messages) - and her own involvement in things escalates from there... 

It all gets rather entangled, and the reader can expect some surprising twists and turns before things finally get sorted out.

I'm rather looking forward to another installment in the series coming up in November.

 

6 comments:

  1. Sounds very tangled indeed - hard to keep track of it all, I imagine!
    Have you seen the film Enola Holmes? It is about Sherlock's little sister and her adventures after she wakes up one morning to find their mother gone.
    I am not sure there is a book, too, but I watched the film one or two years ago and quite liked it.

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    1. Meike, no, I haven't seen that film, but the title rings a bell. Looked it up just now and it seems it is based on a book and that "the distribution rights to the film were picked up by Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic". So Netflix may be where I've seen ads for it. Maybe I'll check it out. It seems there is also a sequel coming up soon (November -22)

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    2. PS. Found the Enola film on Netflix, and watched it last night. I quite liked the Enola character, but have reservations about how Sherlock and Mycroft were portrayed. Seems to me their temperaments in that film are quite reverse compared to the books; and neither of them "looked" right to me either. (Mycroft too energetic and explosive. Holmes too calm, too elegant and too handsome.)

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  2. I do enjoy a good mystery and have read about these books and the author. Somewhere bedded amongst the 200 or so unread books on my Kindle I think I have one of this series. I have heard of the film too but haven't seen it.

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    1. CG, I have lots and lots of unread books on my Kindle as well - beginning to realise that I probably won't ever get through them all, and yet I keep falling for the temptations... free/cheap offers, recommendations from friends, and new books by favourite authors ;-) ...

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