Yesterday was my stop on the Blog Tour celebrating the release of the second book in the Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries series. Check out the guest post by author Robert J Harris here.

Arthur Conan Doyle is the author of Sherlock and in this middle grade series he is imagined as a young boy having a series of adventures that will later lead him to write his infamous detective series. There are two books in the series so far with more to come.

Book 1 – The Gravediggers’ Club

A ghostly lady in grey.

The paw prints of a gigantic hound.

This case can only be solved by the world’s greatest detective.

No, not Sherlock!

Meet boy-detective Artie Conan Doyle, the real brains behind Sherlock Holmes.

With the help of best friend Ham, Artie discovers the secrets of the Spooky Gravediggers’ Club.

Can Artie solve the mystery – or will his first case be his last?

Book 2 – The Vanishing Dragon

A world-famous magician.

A sabotaged illusion.

This case can only be solved

by the world’s greatest detective.

No, not Sherlock!

Boy-detective Artie Conan Doyle, the real brains behind Sherlock Holmes, is once again investigating the impossible.

With the help of best friend Ham, Artie must reveal the secret of the Vanishing Dragon and unmask the villain.

Can Artie solve the mystery – before it’s his turn to disappear?

What I thought

These were a lot of fun and very much in the vein of a couple of other series I have read recently – Robin Steven’s Murder Most Unladylike and Chris Priestly’s Maudlin Towers. It also reminds me of series such as Nancy Drew, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven that I read when much younger.

In the guest post yesterday author Robert said he didn’t want Artie to simply be a young Sherlock and Artie is definitely learning to develop skills of logic and deduction but relying a lot on guesswork and jumping to conclusions.

Despite some wrong turns he perseveres and is determined to solve the mysteries which he does, in the first book mostly with his friend Ham, but in the second with some help from other people too.

Both stories are set in Edinburgh and Robert makes excellent use of the setting – from Greyfriars Cemetery to underground streets. There are also more than a few nods to Sherlock to keep older fans amused. I really should read them but I got enough references from the many tv adaptations I’ve seen.

I slightly preferred the second book because of the magic tricks and theatrics and the introduction of Rowena who is although a little annoying to the boys, is a welcome female addition, and more than proves her worth.

I felt for poor Ham whose love of cake is often ridiculed but loved how that also became a useful plot device in the first book.

As someone who is an advocate for representation of mental health issues I was impressed by the focus on Artie’s father’s depression and the impact this has on both him and his family. I look forward to the continued exploration of that.

As for future developments I’d love to see more of Rowena, and also Artie and Ham’s boarding school would be a welcome setting for one of their adventures.

I would highly recommend this to the target age group and if you are a fan of Sherlock see if they’ll let you keep them for bedtime stories as you will be sure to enjoy the nods to stories such as Hound of the Baskervilles.

Thanks to Floris books/Discover Kelpies for The copies of the books I received for the purpose of this honest review.