Book Review: A Baker Street Wedding by Michael Robertson (Baker Street Mysteries #6)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Another fun visit with Reggie and Laura

Cons: Slow first half, but hard to put down in second half

The Bottom Line:

Quiet honeymoon

That quickly turns dangerous

Page turning by end

Laura and Reggie Honeymoon with Danger

While I still haven’t read very many of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, I’ve enjoyed several contemporary takes on the Holmes legacy.  Probably the most unique is the Baker Street Mysteries, which finds a modern barrister in London tasked with responding to the letters people write to Sherlock Holmes.  A Baker Street Wedding celebrates an event fans have been waiting to see, but with these letters still playing a part.

This book finds Reggie Heath, the aforementioned barrister, marrying Laura Rankin, a famous actress.  They have tried to keep the details of the wedding a secret to avoid the paparazzi, but word leaked out, and the two have to make a hasty retreat and change their honeymoon plans.

Fortunately, Laura is able to find them a place to stay in a remote village on the British coast.  What Reggie doesn’t know is that this place has a connection to Laura’s past, and she has an ulterior motive for suggesting they honeymoon there.  Even Laura doesn’t suspect what is really happening in this sleepy village.  Will the newlyweds figure it out before it is too late?

If you are reading that teaser and wondering where the Sherlock Holmes letters come into play, trust me, they do.  But that’s all I’m going to say on it.  I’ll let you read about that when you pick up the book.

I have found the books in this series to be uneven at times, and this book is no exception.  The pacing early on is slow.  We know danger lurks below the surface, but we don’t seem to be making much progress in figuring out what is going on.  Then things suddenly switch into high gear and I couldn’t put the book down.  I do think that there was a missing day or two in the timeline somewhere, but it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, and everything was wrapped up successfully.

This series has been rather light on recurring characters to this point, and this book feels even lighter.  Reggie and Laura are off on their own for the first half, and we are meeting all new people.  Reggie’s brother doesn’t have much of a presence, which is actually disappointing to me since I love him.  In the second half, another recurring character comes into play as does a character introduced in the previous book.  Honestly, I wasn’t super thrilled to see him again, but I grew to appreciate him a little more here.

Naturally, that gives plenty of time for the new characters to grow, and they do.  In fact, I grew to like some of them quite a bit, which also drew me into the story.

I know I have nitpicked some elements, but overall, I really enjoyed A Baker Street Wedding.  It was great, as always, to spend time with Reggie and Laura, and I found the second half extremely hard to put down.  Fans of the series will definitely enjoy this latest installment.

New to the series?  Be sure to check out the rest of the Baker Street Mysteries.