Dan Andriacco has written a wonderful, light piece of mystery that is hard to put down. It seems that at a Sherlock Holmes colloquium the fans of the Great Detective aren’t satisfied with just honoring Sherlock. Indeed they become involved with a theft of priceless Holmes artifacts and a murder of one of their members. I certainly don’t want to give too much away, but the local university public relations officer (Jeff Cody) is pitted against his brother-in-law (one of the schools professors) in trying to solve the mystery. Not surprisingly, Jeff and his ex-girlfriend (a local reporter) become suspects in the case.

The entire book is fast paced and remarkably well done. It will keep you guessing until the end and even when you think you’ve got it you won’t be quite sure until the final pages. I could not help but see the similarity to the characters of Rex Stout. In fact, Andriacco makes reference to Nero Wolfe more than once. While there is a vague resemblance between Cody and Archie as well as Wolfe and McCabe (the brother-in-law),  the real draw of the book is the wit and cleverness displayed by Cody and the on-again, off-again romance with his ex-girlfriend.

I really recommend this book most highly. It’s a great who-done-it.