The Abduction of Pretty Penny

April 12, 2021
It’s 1917 in Goldberg’s so-so fifth mystery featuring Joanna Blalock (after 2020’s The Art of Deception), and one morning Joanna, the daughter of the late Sherlock Holmes, receives a visit at 221B Baker Street, which she shares with her husband, Dr. Watson’s son, from Emma Adams, a playwright and the owner of a pub and a theater in Whitechapel. Mrs. Adams persuades Joanna to find Penny Martin, the star of her current play, who has gone missing. Meanwhile, the commissioner of Scotland Yard asks Joanna and both Watsons to help investigate a series of murders of prostitutes. The mutilation of their bodies is similar to that inflicted by Jack the Ripper. However, 28 years separates the Ripper’s killing spree from the current deaths. Is it the same man? Joanna believes it is and is sure that Penny will be the next to die. A simple, linear plot and a lack of surprises and humor limit the appeal of this homage. Most Sherlockians can safely take a pass. Agent: Scott Mendel, Mendel Media Group.

May 1, 2021
The disappearance of an enchanting actress brings Joanna Watson face to face with a storied killer. After her first husband died, Joanna, who's Sherlock Holmes' daughter, married John Watson Jr., the son of Holmes' sidekick, and settled in at 221B Baker St. to follow in her father's footsteps, deploying the same amazing skills. Now, the Whitechapel Playhouse has hired her to find Pretty Penny, their missing star, a beauty of immense talent from a poor background. Though at first there seems little reason for Penny's disappearance, Joanna soon notices subtle hints about why she might be gone. The suspects include three theatrically talented physicians who acted with Penny. At the same time, Scotland Yard requests help in the search for a vicious killer whose work bears the hallmarks of Jack the Ripper. Joanna reasons that The Ripper has taken Penny but not yet killed her, unlike the unfortunate prostitutes he's recently mutilated and murdered in the most shocking ways. The Baker Street Irregulars are called in to watch the three doctors, all of whom frequent The Ripper's prowling grounds in Whitechapel, while The Ripper taunts them with missives, one of them threatening the life of Joanna's clever son, Johnny. When Johnny is abducted, the Watsons are desperate to find him. Johnny escapes, but Penny's still missing, and The Ripper's continuing to kill, forcing Joanna to adopt a dangerous plan. Sherlockian ratiocination and authentically stomach-churning detail prop up a mediocre mystery.

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May 28, 2021
Joanna, beautiful and brilliant, is the result of a cocaine-fueled night of love between Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, and if you believe that, you'll believe Holmes wore a deerstalker and smoked a calabash and . . . never mind. This, the fifth in Goldberg's series of diverting pastiches, is set in 1917 and narrated by Joanna's husband, the son of Dr. Watson, who's outlived his famous friend and has a small role. Pretty Penny is a charismatic actress who has maybe a half-dozen lines in the whole narrative; her function is to get the plot going. Her abduction is thought to be the latest outrage by Jack the Ripper, who's perhaps back in Whitechapel after a 30-year absence. Joanna leads the hunt for the monster, displaying her father's empiricism, to give it a fancy name. Why only yard-long wheel tracks? Sherlockians know the ""first read"" of the Doyle canon is for story; subsequent reads are for the characters. Here the story's the thing, put forth in businesslike, functional language that, curiously, goes into overdrive to detail the wounds suffered by the victims.

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