Sherlock Holmes in His Majesty’s Service
Nicholas Meyer has reincarnated himself as Arthur
Conan Doyle. His 1974 “The 7% Solution” was a bestseller and later a motion
picture. From there he has written several novels in the tradition of Sherlock
Holmes. His latest involves his hiring by Britain’s MI-6 at the height of World
War I in 1916. His mission is to obtain a secret telegram sent by the German
foreign office to Mexico’s president Carranza. The mission would challenge a
younger Holmes and Watson, but here we see them it what is likely to be the
last case of their lives.
Of course, any reader with a knowledge of history
would realize that the telegram in question is the Zimmermann Telegram where
Germany offered help to Mexico to seize most of what it lost in the Mexican War
of 1848, namely Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. Britain needed to expose the telegram in order
to bring America into the war.
In order to complete their mission Holmes and Watson
journey to Washington D.C., and Mexico. In Washington they meet up with Alice Roosevelt
Longworth, Teddy’s youngest daughter, who was having an affair with the German ambassador.
This part is not true, but she did have an adventurous sex life and had a long
running affair with Senator William Borah. Her husband Nicholas would be
Speaker of the House from 1925-1931. Alice is helpful in that she puts Holmes
on the trail to Mexico.
In Mexico, with the aide of a communist housekeeper,
Holmes comes up with the telegram and escapes Mexico via a British destroyer
sent especially for him and Watson. Along the way there are attempts on Holmes’
life on the ship to the U.S., in Washington D.C., and in Mexico. It seems that
the Germans were not oblivious to his mission.
I had a lot of fun reading this book. It was a pleasure
to catch up to the great detective as Meyer does Doyle justice.
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