Be warned, Holmes purists, you may take offense at some of the liberties taken, and some of the obvious plays on words. I was. But, all in all, enjoyable. And might not Conan Doyle himself have made plays on words that would have been obvious to the audience of his time, but which are not to us now? ( )

I read a LOT of riffs on the Holmes canon. Holmes has been a favorite of mine since back in 5th grade, and, since we no longer have Conan Doyle to turn to for new adventures, I'm dependent on an assortment of writers who have chosen to continue the Holmes legacy in their own fashion. A good proportion of these titles are mediocre. The ones that succeed generally involve pushing the traditional Holmes narrative in one way or another (think of Laurie King's Holmes, married to a much younger woman with a background in theological history). Occasionally, however, there's a title that succeeds because it reads as if Conan Doyle himself might have written it.

Sherlock Holmes and the Three Winter Terrors is just such a title. The trio of interlocking tales is narrated in a voice that offers a dead-on version of the original Watson: intelligent (even if he's no match for Holmes), brave, gentlemanly, a bit over-concerned at times with propriety, and with a determination to do right by everyone he meets. My copy of Sherlock Holmes and the Three Winter Terrors is full of highlighted passages that I found delightful simply because they were so Watsonian. The Three Winter Terrors are similar in structure to many of the original Conan Doyle stories in terms of pacing, clues, and setting.

If you enjoy reading the original Holmes stories, you'll enjoy reading what Lovegrove has on offer. I'm definitely on the lookout for more of his riffs on the canon.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own. ( )