like all of us, the world’s greatest detective Sherlock Holmes has a past worth reading about. If you want to know what made him choose violin over other musical instruments, why did he have an eye for things people usually miss and why he opted to become the world’s first consulting detective, you will have to go through the 56 short stories as well as the four novels featuring him. Or you can read Andrew Lane’s Rebel Fire and know how Sherlock Holmes was as a teenager!

Just like the first book of the Young Sherlock Holmes series, Death Cloud, there is a teenaged Sherlock living with his aunt and uncle, being tutored by an American, Amyus Crowe, and befriended by his daughter, Virginia, and the street smart Matty.

In Rebel Fire, Holmes gets to know that his tutor has some dark secrets including being a friend of his brother Mycroft who works for the government. In order to know more and rescue Matty, Sherlock travels across the Atlantic only to find himself at the centre of a president’s assassination as well as a potential second Civil War!

What makes this book more exciting than its predecessor is the fact that it takes place in the real world and comes out straight from the heart of a shocking conspiracy! Sherlock is shown to be a kid who has made mistakes as it was his decision to check out the suspicious characters that alerted them. But he manages to correct himself and learn the tricks of a master detective that helps him later in his career.

The book is full of action sequences, has moments of fun whereas the plot thickens as the mystery gets deeper. Add a creepy villain who carries around blood-sucking leeches and you get the perfect mixture of a Sherlock Holmes novel, something that would have made Sir Arthur Conan Doyle proud. There are moments which will light-up the faces of Sherlock Holmes’ fans like his first violin lesson and his first attempt at deciphering a code.

This version of Sherlock Holmes is a world apart from the detective Arthur Conan Doyle created, but that’s because he is a kid.

It’s hard to relate this kid who doesn’t know what a Pinkerton Detective is to the walking encyclopaedia of crime who solved many a cases with Dr Watson in the 1890s.

And yes, for the fans of the last book, Mrs Eglantine — the housekeeper from hell — is still there and one would love Sherlock to win his battle against her in the upcoming sequels. Let the chase begins …    — S.F.