The Sign of Four Spirits

November 6, 2023
Delany’s ninth mystery featuring Cape Cod bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Gemma Doyle (after 2023’s The Game Is a Footnote) is the series’ best yet. London, Mass., is hosting a new psychic fair that has attracted many visitors to the town, and to the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. During the event, Doyle is invited by her friend, Bunny, a former teenage pop star whose daughter, Ashleigh, assists Doyle in running the store, to a séance held by a medium named Madame Lavalier. Despite Doyle’s skepticism about the supernatural, she agrees to attend. When she joins the small gathering, however, Madame Lavalier excludes Doyle from the locked library where the group will attempt to contact the dead, citing the bookseller’s skepticism. The evening ends tragically, when one of the 12 people in the room is killed by a hatpin inserted precisely at the base of their skull. After elbowing her way into the police inquiry, Doyle utilizes her Sherlockian attention to detail to crack the case. The closed-circle setup is brilliantly executed, and will appeal to golden age mystery fans and Holmes fans alike. Delany’s series has plenty of gas left in the tank. Agent: Kimberly Lionetti, BookEnds Literary.

December 1, 2023
Just because Sherlock Holmes is no longer among us doesn't mean his methods can't be used to solve crimes. Gemma Doyle, a transplant from England who shares a home and business with her globetrotting great-uncle, runs the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium at 222 Baker Street in Cape Cod's West London. Now that a psychic fair's in town, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books on spiritualism are flying off the shelves. Gemma has no interest in such things, but many of her friends do, especially Sherlock devotee Donald Morris and former pop star Bunny Leigh, who go to the fair and end up inviting several friends to a s�ance. Somehow Gemma and her friend Jayne Wilson, half-owner, manager, and baker at Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room at 220 Baker Street, get talked into attending along with Donald, Bunny's daughter, another employee, and two couples Gemma met at her store. Before the s�ance begins in the library at the home of wealthy Rebecca Stanton, Madame Lavalier asks Gemma to leave: "Your skepticism is not wanted here," she says. Gemma sits outside the door but finds it difficult to hear everything inside because a storm is raging overhead. When Madame is killed, chaos ensues, and Gemma calls the police, who arrive in the form of her boyfriend, Det. Ryan Ashburton. Given Gemma's reputation for solving murders and the very limited group of suspects who could have stabbed Madame with a hat pin, it might seem an easy mystery to solve, but nailing down the motive is anything but. Fans of Holmes and the occult will enjoy following the Great Detective along the trail.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2023
Skeptic Gemma Doyle, co-owner of Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium and Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room, reluctantly agrees to attend a s�ance at the request of her friend and employee Ashleigh but is banished from the room before the event begins. At the s�ance, held during a violent thunderstorm, the medium, Madame Lavalier, is stabbed to death with a hatpin. Gemma can attest that no one entered the room, meaning the attendees are the only suspects, although none seems to have a motive. Gemma's boyfriend, police detective Ryan Ashburton, asks Gemma for some assistance with the case, but she and her good friend Jayne go much further than he intended, even going undercover at a psychic fair. A second murder complicates the case further, implicating a friend of Gemma's. Details of running a bookshop and a tea room frame this satisfying addition to the cozy Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery series (after The Game is a Footnote, 2023) firmly set in its Cape Cod location. Plot twists, well-drawn characters, and a hint of romance add to the story.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.