Anomalous

This book is, to the best of my knowledge, the first fiction published by this author. It is touted on the cover as being “the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes featuring Jack Johnson and Alfonse Capone.” My expectations were that I would find a book that preached the cause of integration and told of the terrible injustices suffered by the black community in America. What I found was a well-thought-out mystery about fascinating people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. The ‘preaching’ was confined to one scene in which Jack Johnson and Steve Dixie reasonably discuss the rationale of Victorian Society’s attitude to people of color with Dr. Watson. All additional preaching on the matter is confined to allowing events to take their course and characters to act out their natures.The story is believable and is made to fit the time constraints imposed by “His Last Bow.” According to that source, Holmes visited several locations in America in 1912 as ‘Altamont.’ Chicago was prominent among these places and that is where he and Jack Johnson meet, in Johnson’s restaurant, the “Café de Champion.” This meeting, combined with ‘Altamont’s’ involvement with Irish hoodlums brings him into contact with the leading Chicago mob boss of the time, “Big Jim” Colosimo and his enforcer, “Johnny” Torio, who are friends of Jack Johnson, the first non-white Heavyweight boxing champion. The Irish hoodlums are trying to gain an ‘in’ with the Italian mob and the acquaintance of ‘Altamont’ and Johnson helps this process along. A short time later, ‘Altamont’ was assigned to Ireland on “Provo “(Provisional IRA) business. Shortly after that, Jack Johnson was railroaded on trumped-up “Mann Act” charges and sentenced to a year in a Federal Penitentiary. He jumped bail and fled, with his wife, to Canada. Later, he went to London.With Jack Johnson’s arrival in London, things become interesting. It appears that at least two groups are after Johnson, one trying to kill him and another trying to kidnap him. Further, it seems that at least one of these groups is involved with some hanky-panky that Holmes is looking into as a side-line on his ‘Altamont’ project and action follows hot and heavy. At times, one suspects that events are happening a bit out of sequence, but most of the actions described are not traceable, so the author’s sequencing remains acceptable. Steve Dixie, the colored boxer from “The Three Gables,” makes an interesting appearance as does a grown-up half-caste Lucy Hebron from “The Yellow Face.” Mob enforcers Frankie Yale and Alfonse Capone show up in reply to a request to “Big Jim” for help by Jack Johnson.The writing is crisp and carefully done, especially at the beginning where readers’ attention needs to be grasped firmly. The book has also been extensively edited, although most of the work was done with software rather than an editor’s eye. There is a constant, minor irritation of properly spelled but improperly applied usage and tense agreement which never really becomes heavy but wears on the reader. The action toward the end of the book becomes confusing, but not confused. Most of the confusion is simply due to the fact that a lot happens in a short time because several contending groups are executing plans independent of one another. The author performs a very good job of showing the human side of criminals. He also carefully reminds readers that these are truly persons with a different outlook than most of us are accustomed to.Taken all-in-all, this is a very entertaining and plausible book. It is informative and intriguing with a close-up view of some very unpleasant aspects of early Twentieth Century racial relations as well as a vivid picture of some extremely interesting characters. The author has taken a great deal of care to keep within the bounds of The Canon. His characters are very well drawn and have a lot of attractive features, even his villains.Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, October 2012