I found the story rather complex, with quite a few characters and locations to keep track of. Still, I found it interesting to compare how this story was written to how the original Doyle tales about Holmes were constructed. This story has a much more modern style, with much more jumping around among parallel story lines. There is also an omniscient voice that not only tells us what Holmes and Watson are doing, saying and thinking, but also sometimes tells us what other characters in other locations are doing, saying and thinking.
Holmes seems to be a somewhat different kind of character. For instance, he has extended correspondence with an enchanting woman. He also gets kissed, not just by one woman, but by two! In one scene, Holmes and Watson encounter a naked lady, who also happens to be dead. This seems scarcely to ruffle the feathers of Holmes and Watson. It’s all in a day’s work, apparently. There are a surprising number of telephone calls and telephone conversations. Holmes seems almost as prone to picking locks, picking pockets and bribing people for information as he is to deducing information from his keen observations.
This story, like Millet’s story about Holmes and the Hinkley fire, also prominently features a brothel. It makes sense in the context of the story, but to my recollection, brothels never appeared in Doyle’s stories about Holmes. Millett’s story also features a main character who is a strong-willed and resourceful woman. I don’t know that Doyle penned any stories like that. With so many differences between Millett and Doyle, you get the feeling that Millet is practicing the art of innovation rather than the art of imitation.
One of the biggest surprises is that though this book is billed as part of the “Holmes in Minnesota Series,” Holmes never actually sets foot in Minnesota. The story takes place primarily in England, New York and Chicago. Another surprise is that Holmes disappears from the story for perhaps as much as 1/4 or 1/3 of the book. Meanwhile, the story focuses on Watson and his police detective friends as they try to unravel what has happened to the missing Holmes.