Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Undead Client: Being Book One of the Unpublished Case Files of John H. Watson, M.D.
Whitechapel, 1888. You know what’s coming next—but you don’t expect Sherlock Holmes to be involved. That’s the twist in this alternative explanation of the Jack the Ripper murders.
The case starts out innocently enough: Holmes is asked by former Prime Minister William Gladstone to find two missing people, the sister and the fiancé of a young Scottish nurse who tends to the poor in London’s East End. They discover the infirmary to which Anne Prescott is attached is run by an American with ties to New Orleans’ infamous LaLaurie voodoo family, and fear that Katie and Tom may have already fallen into the ranks of the undead.
Holmes uses his disguises and employs his Irregulars to ferret out clues to the mastermind behind the zombie scheme. Watson is so infatuated with Anne’s beauty that, when she becomes infected after a zombie bite, he feels he must use his medical training to save her as only he can. After Watson’s scalpels are stolen and prostitutes with their throats slashed pepper the headlines, the situation goes from bad to worse, especially because Anne’s pet name for Watson is “Jack.” The body count grows as Holmes and Watson confront their mortal enemy, Professor Moriarty.
Downing plots a credible storyline and clearly knows his way around the Sherlock Holmes cases. Watson’s personal involvement in this tale is the icing on the cake since he is much more than the narrator throughout. The violence quotient is a bit high, but the subject matter warrants it and the timeliness of the walking dead for today’s audience is spot-on. A fitting tribute to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
