Just like the first novel and most other things to do with Holmes this is great fun, and just the thing to actually be reading by the fire at Christmas time. Told again in the first person by Mrs. Hudson's assistant Flotsam, this is another exposé of what really went on in Baker Street - and the fact that Holmes is just as bumbling (though a lot more opinionated) as Watson makes it highly amusing. But it is not all laughs, and there is a good, puzzling story in here that has more incident than the first book and no treading water. This is a real winter's tale of foggy streets, strange disappearances, a wonderful description of a sinister toymaker, flamboyant theatricals and a baffled Scotland Yard. Nobody could call this cozy tale realistic, with Flottie's lessons from a peer of the realm, chasing tropical butterflies with his ditzy girlfriend and the sort of Victorian setting that ought to have been realistic even if it isn't. Who cares with a tale as good as this? Curl up by your fireside and get stuck in; I will definitely be looking out for book three.