Holmes Sweet Holmes

This book is the second Sebastian McCabe – Jeff Cody mystery, following his earlier "No Police Like Holmes." This book lacks the impressive character set of eccentric Sherlockians encountered in the first, but it does present a dandy mystery and a new set of eccentrics. This group are a bit more difficult to categorize, but they tend to come from the world of entertainment, if anywhere in particular.Much of the narrative concentrates on academic in-fighting, with our heroes "in medias res." We are treated to a double murder with theories obscured by facts and suspects just oozing both motives and lies. Telling the white hats from the black takes more than an eye for color. Our hero, Jeff Cody, worries his way through the entire process and professor McCabe claims to have every thing almost in hand for most of the book.Personally, I miss the rich Sherlockian atmosphere of the earlier book, but the author did come up with at least one good line from "The Maltese Falcon" as well as a few other mystery references. Jeff’s true love, reporter Lynda Teal, turns out to have an educated taste in Bourbon but the chief of police seems to be a “throw ‘em back” fisherman. The femme fatale of this little opus seems to have an uneducated taste for whatever or whoever is offered. The battle between Jeff and his boss, Ralph, moves into new territory and the seamy side of the ivory tower gets exposed for all to see.This is a worthy second volume and it continues the tradition of crimes in an academic venue. The setting, a small town on the Ohio River, with a small private University and a semi-rural population continues to provide enough contrasts to maintain interest. Large cities are close enough to hand to add contrast to the mix and the faculty and student bodies offer a wide selection of characters for manipulation.Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, June 2012