Sherlock Holmes on the Western Front Book

I grabbed this from the local 'need a book, take a book' shelf at the train station, which I had seeded with some stuff a couple weeks ago. Apparently, Mr. Andrews wrote quite a pile of Holmes Pastiches.

This one features Mycroft dragging Holmes and Watson out of retirement to foil some British spies during the Great War. The feel of the characters is there, and the sense that Holmes is older, and perhaps a bit out of practice, but still Holmes, works well.

There's quite a few fun moments.. at one point Holmes and Watson pretend to be spies pretending to be Holmes and Watson, and at another Watson opines how the Germans aren't such bad chaps once the War is over.

My main complaint is probably not the writers fault. The story sets up with Holems and Watson having been retired for many years, and not having seen much of each other.. yet there's no reminisincing at all on Watson's part.. which seems entirely out of character. I can imagine that wouldn't really make for a good narrative, though.

Then there's the one nitpick that drove me nuts.... Holmes mentions Irene Adler by name, right in the beginning! Luckily, I got over it and still read the book... I'd definitely read other Holmes adventures by Andrews if I came across them.