In Art in the Blood, author Bonnie MacBird revives the favored and famous detective Sherlock Holmes and the indispensable, recently married Dr. Watson.
In the aftermath of the Ripper cases, Holmes is riddled with defeat and has regressed to his old cocaine addiction. But when a mysterious perfumed letter arrives addressed to Holmes, along with the happenstantial news of the Greek Nike statue’s baffling disappearance, he’s soon up to his old tricks of disguise and inquiry. This complicated case has Holmes and Watson tearing through the streets of London and caught in the shadowed corners of Paris’ elicit cabarets, where the absinthe might put you in a daze but isn’t nearly as hallucinogenic as the seductive chanteuses serenading from the stage.
Art in the Blood blends the industrial and archaeological developments of the late 1800s with the avant-garde urbanity that tipped the scale and poured life into a booming 20th century. MacBird illustrates the energy leading up to the turn of the century, giving the reader a tantalizing taste of the art and sensuality that defined Bohemian culture, set in high contrast to the seedy side of industrialization and its exploitation of child labor and the corruption of money. And weaving in and out of all this chaos is Holmes, with his astute, hypersensitive observations and clever, sharp-tongued witticisms that only get him in trouble. This is a smashing, fast-paced page-turner that shines.
