Combes and Watson in Oregon

When stockbroker Shirley Combes decides she wants to change careers and become the world's greatest living detective, who else but Dr. Mary Watson, naturopath (that's correct), could be her sidekick. In The Hounding by Sandra de Helen, Combes is called upon by Goldenhawk Vandeleur, the daughter of the deceased, to find the murderer of her mother, heiress Priscilla (Cilla) Vandeleur Leoni.

Cilla, the heir to the Baskerville timber fortune, is mauled by dogs on her morning run and dies of cardiac arrest. Golden is sure her stepfather is the murderer because he stands to inherit the bulk of Cilla's estate and his furniture company has been failing.

As we soon discover, Cilla has an abiding fear of being killed by a dog, as had many of her family members. This parallels The Hounds of the Baskerville book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but in contemporary Oregon, it doesn't appear to be a realistic phobia. But ah, it is and the game is afoot (even though Sherlock never said that except on TV)! The trail leads an all directions and even includes a baby monkey and a group of animal rights activists.

This book tickled my Sherlock Holmes fancy especially as Shirley is the cold, detached, lanky and blunt character everyone knows and loves in Sherlock. She is slightly nicer to her Dr. Watson though than Sherlock is to his. Dr. Mary Watson wonders why she is asked to take notes as Shirley has a remarkable memory. She is an efficient lockpick and is handy to have around in a crisis, and hard as it may seem, Shirley wants her as a friend.

I enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to others in this series. For other books in this series, click here.