The Grimswell Curse

October 13, 2014
Siciliano pulls off an impressive feat in his third pastiche (after 2012's The Web Weaver), crafting an homage to The Hound of the Baskervilles that is genuinely creepy in its own right. As in his previous two Holmes novels, Siciliano has substituted the detective's cousin, Dr. Henry Vernier, for Watson, but that change will bother only purists. The duo are drawn into a terrifying case after they are consulted by Lord Frederick Digby, who has just been dumped by his fiancée, Rose Grimswell, because her father, Victor, who died in a fall from a Dartmoor tor over four months earlier, won't allow the union. Rose had recently learned of the legend of a family curse, dating back to the 15th century, involving an ancestor rumored to be either a vampire or a werewolf. After Rose flees London for her family's home on the moors, Holmes and Vernier follow, in an attempt to save her life from a malevolent force. Siciliano sustains a sense of supernatural menace throughout, and couples that with a convincing portrayal of the master detective.

Starred review from May 4, 2020
At the outset of Siciliano’s excellent seventh Holmes pastiche (after 2018’s The Devil and the Four), which takes its inspiration from Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” 21-year-old Isabel Stone, who lives with her stepfather, Capt. Grimbold Pratt, calls on Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street. Miss Stone has discovered a note from her late mother stating that Pratt and her father, Maj. Hubert Stone, who were stationed in India together, each returned to England decades ago with a share of a treasure-trove of jewels. After the major died when Miss Stone was five, Pratt married her mother and demanded custody of her mother’s share of the gems. When Miss Stone recently asked Pratt about the gems, the eccentric captain, who maintains an exotic menagerie at his Surrey home, including a tiger, denied their existence. Miss Stone hopes Holmes will help her get her rightful inheritance. Siciliano plants suggestions early on that the new client may not be who she seems and that the story line will deviate from that of “The Speckled Band.” This clever mystery is further proof that Siciliano is one of the best contemporary pasticheurs.