Good stuff, and great fun, if not as hilarious as the first in the series. Will keep reading, though. ( )

Good stuff, and great fun, if not as hilarious as the first in the series. Will keep reading, though. ( )

Sherlock who? Inspector Sholto Lestrade is on the case! This is the second volume in MJ Trow's Lestrade mystery series. Holmes makes no appearance, being dead (or "dead" -- in this universe, who knows?), and Watson is utterly incidental to the plot. Considering the way they generally treat the men of Scotland Yard, this is fine by Lestrade. The inspector spends the novel investigating what seems to be the serial murder of unprepossessing old men. The connecting link turns out to be the Charge of the Light Brigade: all the victims were survivors of the charge. But why? Well, that's a really weird story. But you know, Conan Doyle wrote any number of Holmes stories that leave the reader going "huh?", so Trow is certainly allowed some too.

I loved the internal politics of Scotland Yard, the hapless (but very loyal) Constable Dew, and the wonderful dry humor throughout. My first introduction to the Holmes stories was through the Granada versions that aired in the 1980s; Colin Jeavons played Lestrade in that series, and that's who I see when I read these mysteries. The physical description doesn't match, but oh, the humor certainly does. I look forward to seeing what adventures Lestrade gets pulled into next. ( )

Trow has a fabulous sense of humor, and it is on full display in this book. In this book Lestrade goes undercover to investigate the deaths of elderly veterans who belonged to the same army regiment. His disguises include other investigators at Scotland Yard, as well as an orthodox rabbi, and his case has him traversing the country into every corner of the countryside.

There's plenty to like about these mysteries, and I enjoyed this one. Though they are based on the Inspector Lestrade character in the Sherlock Holmes books, Holmes and Watson are very marginal to this book, even more so than they were in the first in the series. It is Lestrade who is the center of London investigations. This is not a series for those who take their Holmes seriously. Trow takes plenty of liberties, and the main attraction for me is their humorous writing, not their adherence to Conan Doyle's canon. ( )