Jon Lellenberg. Baker Street Irregular. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 2010. (A Mycroft and Moran Book) 408p. $39.95 ISBN 978-55246-9224


As a rule, we haven’t reviewed much new fiction, but this novel is the exception that proves the rule. It’s part historical fiction, part political thriller, and the best part of both. The book is definitely a tour de force.


Our hero is Woody Hazelbaker, a young lawyer with a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Toward the end of prohibition he obtains a position with a law firm that has a mobster for a client and his story spans the time from the early 1930s through the 1940s, from the Depression to World War II. He spends a lot of his time reading the books of the day and going to the movies of that era while romancing the daughter of one of the law firm’s other clients. Things take an even more interesting turn with an invitation to lunch with some people who happen to share Woody’s passion for Sherlock Holmes and he finds himself in on the founding of the Baker Street Irregulars, the organization designed to keep green the memory of the world’s first consulting detective. The cast of characters in the novel is large and so many are real historic figures that those who are not are almost lost in the crowd. One may be excused for thinking some of the fictitious ones are also real.


So often the historic figures in historical fiction contribute little to the action, but merely serve as window dressing. The historic figures in Baker Street Irregular (Christopher Morley, Vincent Starrett, Elmer Davis, Basil Davenport, Rex Stout, Lucius Beebe, and others) really participate in Woody’s story and even the walk-ons add to the verisimilitude. Many of them really attended those early BSI dinners.


The political intrigue begins when some members of the Irregulars are depicted as playing an important role in convincing America of the wisdom of coming to the aid of England in the early days of the war. This makes Woody’s experiences in military intelligence later on all the more plausible.


This is truly a page-turner, but at a more deliberate pace than is usually associated with that term. Once caught up in the events, the reader does not want to miss a single incident, a single line of prose, a single word of dialogue. Once finished there is a temptation to turn back to the beginning and experience the ride all over again.


As both novelist and historian, the author is convincing and compelling and comes by those qualities honestly. Jon Lellenberg is the author of the Baker Street Irregulars Archival Histories (eight volumes to date) and knows the background against which he has set his fiction as no one else does. While the book may resonate most with those who are familiar with the stories of Sherlock Holmes, anyone who enjoys a good read will enjoy this one.


J. Randolph Cox

Dime Novel Round-Up, vol. 79, no. 6

(December 2010)