Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Raleigh Legacy (1987)

The paperback edition of L.B. Greenwood's first Holmes pastiche. Jon L. Lellenburg said on behalf of the Conan Doyle Estate: "It is exactly the sort of faithful, straightforward, entertaining Sherlock Holmes mystery we like to see."

 

ONLY THE MASTER HIMSELF
COULD DECIPHER THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER
THAT WAS THE RALEIGH LEGACY

The mystery stretched back to Sir Walter Raleigh. His cryptic letter, with its mention of a great treasure, was the only legacy young Aleck Raleigh had. And for almost three centuries every Raleigh heir had sought the treasure. Now only Aleck is left in the somber, decaying mansion of Nightsead–with his stepfather, Mr. Moseley, a gaunt man filled with suspicions and secrets. 

And as the mystery deepened with the appearance of a vivacious American girl and strange events at Nightsead, it was sure to end with murder...a devious, diabolical act that made this a case only the great Holmes could solve.

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Raleigh Legacy

Author: L.B. Greenwood

Year: 1987 (first published 1986)

Publisher: St. Martins Press

Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Raleigh Legacy (1986)

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson uncover a history mystery involving Sir Walter Raleigh in this first Holmes pastiche by L.B. Greenwood. This is the hardcover released in 1986. A paperback was released a year later.

This mystery, the Canadian author's first, won approval from the Conan Doyle estate. But the sure-fire plotclearly based on Greenwood's knowledge of English history sinks under the tale's flimsy construction and fancy-Dan writing. As told by Dr. Watson, the story concerns a cryptic Elizabethan note belonging to the doctor's friend Aleck Raleigh. The centuries-old relic hints at a "grate Tresur" cached at Nightsead, onetime home of the quintessential swashbuckler Sir Walter, Aleck's ancestor. 

Watson excites the interest of the great Sherlock Holmes in the legacy, and Holmes tackles the puzzle and also investigates young Raleigh's stepfather and the lad's wife. The detective suspects either or both might kill for the secret he digs out (at last) from Nightsead's huge stone ruins. The find is fantastic, meriting the hyperbole wasted elsewhere on innumerable mundane moments in the tale, yet Greenwood treats the shocker rather casually.

- Publishers Weekly 

Title: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Raleigh Legacy
Author: L.B. Greenwood
Year: 1986
Publisher: Atheneum
Purchase: Amazon