The Missing Maid
(The Baker Street Mysteries #1)
by Holly Hepburn
London, 1932.
When Harriet White rebuffs the advances of her boss at the Baker Street building society where she works, she finds herself demoted to a new position… a very unusual position. Deep in the postal department beneath the bank, she is tasked with working her way through a mountain of correspondence addressed to Baker Street’s most famous Mr Sherlock Holmes.
Seemingly undeterred by the fact that Sherlock Holmes doesn’t exist, letter after letter arrives, beseeching him to help solve mysteries, and Harry diligently replies to each writer with the same Mr Holmes has retired from detective work and now lives in Sussex, keeping bees.
Until one entreaty catches her eye. It’s from a village around five miles from Harry’s family estate, about a young woman who went to London to work as a domestic, then disappeared soon afterwards in strange circumstances. Intrigued, Harry decides, just this once, to take matters into her own hands.
And so, the case of the missing maid is opened…
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
At twenty-two, their youngest brother had yet to develop a sense of responsibility, relying instead on impish charm and a smile that was hard to resist. His siblings had long ago learned not to lend him anything they wanted to see again.
Yellowish china pump handles stood tall above the polished wood of the bar itself, presided over by a burly man who looked to Harry as though he was one impertinent comment away from a good brawl.
A word of warning, though. That toffee-nosed accent of yours creeps through every now and then. You should work on that before you do any more snooping.
My Review:
This was a fun and clever start to a new historical cozy series, and I do loves a good cozy. The premise of this one is quite appealing and unique, desperate people writing to the Baker Street address of the great Sherlock Holmes, begging the infamous detective to help them with various problems. A major problem being that while Sherlock Holmes didn’t exist beyond print, his address was real, although it happened to be belong to a bank.
It fell upon a wily and independent minded young woman, laboring away in a small windowless broom closet, to type out individual responses to each correspondent. How many of us remember using carbon paper?
This was my first exposure to the agile and creative scribblings of Holly Hepburn and I found her writing style to be smooth, immersive, and easy to follow, with issues and scenarios true to the period. I adored her conjured characters and look forward to more of these adventures.
Holly Hepburn is the bestselling author of many feelgood novels, including A Year at the Star and Sixpence, Coming Home to Brightwater Bay and The Little Shop of Hidden Treasures. Her books are first published throughout the year in four parts, as e-book novellas, and then collated to make one paperback and audiobook soon afterwards. She tries to write escapist fiction set in places she wished she lived. Her most recent title is Return to Half Moon Farm, published by Simon and Schuster UK.
But Holly is also turning her hand to crime, with a full-length novel in a new cosy crime series, The Baker Street Mysteries, launching in March 2024. The Missing Maid, published by Boldwood, is set in 1932 and inspired by perhaps the greatest detective of them all – a certain Mr Sherlock Holmes. Expect twists and turns and lots of tea as Sherlock’s secretary opens her first investigation.
Holly lives near London with her golden Labrador, Luna. Once of them has an an unhealthy obsession with sticks.
