I received an advance reader’s copy (ARC) of The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall by Ali Standish. Since this version is just a proof and not the final version, I won’t quote directly and will keep my comments general.

In The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall, Arthur Doyle is part of a poor family in Edinburgh, just trying to get by. But when his clever mind catches the attention of the team at Baskerville Hall, a prestigious school, he sees a chance to become more successful than he ever dreamed. Once at the school, he makes new friends with fellow students Irene and Jimmie. Together, they discover how peculiar this place is, and that there might have been a break-in recently. But why was nothing stolen? And he wonders what the school’s secret society known as the Clover has to do with it.

So I decided to read this because I wanted a middle grade take on Sherlock Holmes, and part of me was entertained, but the other part was… a little let down, unfortunately.

I did like Arthur as the protagonist, though I think he was a little generic, especially considering the random facts I know about the original Arthur Conan Doyle. However, I think that Irene was a really fun character, full of wit and sass. The other characters were fine, though none were as well developed as Arthur and Irene. (The sole exception is Kipper, who is easily the best, most adorable character and who I love very much.)

As for the setting, this was the best part. The feeling of being in Baskerville Hall reminds me of how Hogwarts felt in the first Harry Potter book, full of wonder and mystery and strangeness. I enjoyed exploring the place through Arthur’s eyes, even if we clearly didn’t discover all of its secrets.

Unfortunately, this is kind of where my positive impression ends. The plot honestly reminded me a lot of, again, the first Potter book—a boy goes to a special school, makes two close friends, investigates a break-in with bigger ramifications than he dreamed of. There’s even some elements of magic. I also really wanted to see more of Holmes and Watson. The latter is an anatomy teacher, which makes perfect sense, and based on his description, I knew it was him the moment I saw him. But he was only in a few scenes, which was frustrating.

Even more frustrating was how little Holmes was in this. Spoiler alert, but he doesn’t appear until very close to the end of the book and basically didn’t affect the plot at all. I know this is the first book of a series, but I wanted way more Holmes content! That was why I read this, and waiting to see when my favorite weird detective was going to show up was frankly annoying. What was the point of even making this a take on Conan Doyle and the Holmes characters if they aren’t going to do anything?

Ugh. Anyway, in the end, The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall starts out pretty charming, with an underdog protagonist thrust into a new, wondrous setting and a mystery to solve. But the mystery wasn’t really one you could predict (in a not-great way), and the setting doesn’t make up for the rather unoriginal plot. Also, I’ve learned something about myself: if you’re going to promise me that Sherlock Holmes is going to be in something, please put him front and center or I’m going to be very irritated. Even a dinosaur egg and a basically-magical clock didn’t alleviate that. Of course, I suppose that the intended audience (middle grade) might still have fun with this, especially considering they probably haven’t read all the Holmes short stories and novellas like I have.

For me, though, I’ll stick with Elementary.

The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall will be published on September 12th, 2023!