This one goes on your Christmas List: David Marcum’s first Holmes novel: “Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt” . . . .
“On those few occasions,” said Holmes, “I have caused more harm than good by revealing a solution in order to improve my reputation, or as a sop to my immediate vanity. My younger self was building up a quantity of debt I am sometimes forced to pay now by being more judicious with my conclusions. I have learned that occasionally justice should be tempered and dispensed in due moderation.”
“And are you the person to decide?” I asked. “When it should be tempered?”
“Possibly.”
April 1888: Sherlock Holmes is in Baker Street, finishing up the last details of a recent case. Dr. Watson is there as well, in a strangely dark mood, pondering if this is the path that he is meant to follow . . . .
Then, from out of the storm, Inspector Alec MacDonald climbs the seventeen steps to the famous sitting room, requesting Holmes and Watson’s participation in the investigation of a body that has been found in Bedfordshire, under very unusual conditions. This is obviously an old crime, and MacDonald would appreciate Holmes’s help. For there seem to be connections between the victim and the very wealthy man on whose property the dead man was discovered.
Holmes and Watson discover that not all is as it appears. There are dangerous secrets in this old house that might be best left alone –
221B News 