"Do what you like with him" Conan Doyle is quoted as saying, and many authors have done just that. Here is a novel in the true Doyle spirit, the sort of thing that can surely only be the work of somebody who knows and loves the canon. There are dastardly doings on dark and stormy nights, ancient bloodstains and the unquiet ghost of Rizzio, weirdly shattered corpses and depraved aristocrats. Surely nobody can resist such a heady concoction, and the book fairly rattles along at a speed ensuring that it remains exciting with no sags or repetition. This is no literary masterpiece with soul searching characters, introspection and a leisured look at the case from all sides - and thank goodness for that! If you too are cheering, then curl up by your fireside and get stuck. This is the perfect book for Christmas Eve (or any other time). I do hope Carr writes another.