Latest Review of Sherlock Holmes and the Irish Rebels

“Kieran McMullen has once more combined his expertise as a military historian and former soldier with his devotion to Sherlock Holmes, and he’s added a third element – his own heritage – in Sherlock Holmes and the Irish Rebels (MX Publishing; http://www.mxpublishing.co.uk; £10.99/ $18.99/ €12.99). Two years into the Great War, Dr Watson is called away from his post with the Royal Army Medical Corps and instructed to join Holmes in Dublin, where, under the alias of Liam Altamont, he has infiltrated the Irish Volunteers, who, believing that ‘England’s extremity is Ireland’s opportunity’, are a rebellion against British rule.

As we know, the Easter Rising was crushed, saving Britain from war in the west as well as the east, but disgust at the speedy execution of the leading rebels only intensified the desire for Irish independence. It’s a powerful subject, and Mr McMullen handles it well. How would Arthur Conan Doyle have tackled it, I wonder?”

Roger Johnson