The Baker Street Irregulars – a group of Sherlock Holmes-obsessed individuals from all walks of life – have discovered that a Hollywood studio is about to produce a hard-boiled version of The Speckled Band. For some reason, the studio listens when they complain about it, demanding that the director be replaced, but rather than do that, the studio invites them to visit the set.

And then, peculiar things begin to happen. Mysterious messages lead to the death of the director, but that’s not all. A disappearing body and then each member of the Irregulars finds themselves entangled in adventures that seem strangely familiar…

Book Club time and, boy, I was looking forward to this one. I’ve enjoyed my two encounters with Boucher in the past – Nine Times Nine and The Case Of The Seven Of Calvary – so finally, I thought, it’ll be a title that I can get behind.

Yup, you can see where this is going, can’t you?

First of all, you’re going to get much more out of this if you are an aficionado of Holmes. I’ve said it before, I’m not a massive fan as the books aren’t really mysteries, and I’ve read no more than half the stories. And I’m ging to be honest, I found quite a lot of this really hard going.

Now that may be because I’m still recovering from a bad cold/mild case of flu, but I was still bright enough to spot part of what was going on. And because I guessed that bit almost as soon as one thing starts happening in the book, it did make that bit of the book a bit tiresome.

I really quite can’t put my finger on why this didn’t work for me, though. There’s something about the tone of the whole thing that just didn’t gel with me, and by the end, I was just turning pages to get to the end. If this hadn’t been a Book Club book, I probably wouldn’t have finished it…

If you want a more informative review, though, do pop over to my fellow Book Clubber Brad’s review.