After a 2 year wait, we finally get the next installment of the Holmes series!
And while it was nice to come back to this world, this one was less than stellar from the past books.
It had a strong beginning with some insight on Watson’s family and immediately shifts to another case involving a weird love triangle and stage magicians, which is not bad, but I do think it was dragged out unnecessarily when we had a much more interesting case at the beginning.
Still the atmosphere and the chemistry between Holmes and Watson are still in top form.

4.5 stars
This has been my favorite book in the series so far! It is Sherlock Holmes meets The Prestige and I could not have been more excited to read that combination. I loved all the characters, the plot line was easy to follow, and the multiple Mysteries did overlap a little bit. I also liked the resolution at the end with the mystery box that Watson received. I am excited for the next installment in the series!

The Three Locks is the fourth installment in Bonnie MacBird’s Sherlock Holmes Adventures series. Set during the late summer of 1887, in it Holmes and Watson find themselves tackling three different cases. At first, they seem unrelated but as time goes on and the clues are gathered things are more closely related than they seem.

Bonnie MacBird has once again done an admirable job in bringing the familiar world surrounding 221B Baker Street to life. Her handling of the characters shows a deep love for them, as does the way she is able to craft a story that is engaging and entertaining. Her style of writing is very reminiscent of the original Doyle stories only updated for a modern audience.

Practically every Sherlock Holmes fan has a favorite version of the iconic character. From Benedict Cumberbatch’s modern Holmes to Jeremy Brett’s penultimate Holmes, there is a version for everyone. And in The Three Locks, the same can be said. There are little touches that evoke certain versions of both Holmes and Watson. I personally found it very entertaining to try and figure out which version MacBird was referencing where.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson would do well to check out MacBird’s Sherlock Holmes Adventures series. While it doesn’t need to be read in order, I do recommend my fellow fans and readers to read it all.

Lucky for me this random library grab happens to be the prequel to the previous three in the series. I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, and I appreciate hyperobservation as a superpower. This fit into the cannon quite well.
Good: Characterization of Holmes as a deeply caring, wildly Victorian man. Watson, competent (now with tragic backstory!); locked boxes, v good.
Not great: disparate, converging plot; Mycroft saves the day with money; motivation for the ultimate crime.

I enjoyed the book, and tore through it in one day; but honestly my favorite part is the author's annotations on her website. There is something deeply endearing about nerds excited about their research, and MacBird has it in spades.

Not finished

I am a huge lover of the Sherlock Holmes stories and adore the Arthur Conan Doyle’s originals, and I do love when new Holmes and Watson’s stories are written (when done well). They can either be fantastic or a bit of a flop I find, depending on how well the author portrays the characters and story, and this one was most definitely fantastic. I loved it! This was the perfect example of a new Holmes story done well!

I got into the story straight away, with a mystery from the get go to get your teeth into. It had all the feels of the original stories and I loved how both Sherlock and John were written. I’ll never tire of Sherlocks shenanigans and there were many here! Some so so funny and so true to character. I loved the humour and all the Sherlock-isms in this book.

It was definitely an addicting story and I couldn’t put it down. The interactions between Holmes and Watson were great to read and the development of the story as it unravelled had me intrigued.

There were several cases running alongside each other in this story however I didn’t find them hard to follow or get mixed up or confused at any point, which can easily happen with more than one case on the go! I love how each one concluded and the outcome and deductions Sherlock deduced was as amazing and clever as ever.

I could read a million of these stories. It was a very entertaining book and one that any a Sherlock Holmes fan will enjoy. I definitely did!

I was lucky enough to read this with thanks to the author and publishers on NetGalley to give an honest review.

Another great adventure for Holmes and Watson that presents readers with an enjoyably tricky puzzle to solve.
Bit hard to keep up with the multiple parts of the story if you’re a slow reader like me but, of course, the doctor and the detective explain it all in the end.

The Three Locks is the fourth in MacBird’s Sherlock series, but can be read as a stand-alone. She puts her own spin on the classic characters and she brings the era to life well.

The story begins with Dr. Watson receiving a mysterious box, supposedly from his mother, who has been dead for many years. It’s locked with the first of the three locks, a lock no one can open and for which Watson doesn’t have the key.

Soon, Sherlock and Watson are approached by the first client, the wife of an Italian escape artist. She wants him to discover the truth behind the feud between her husband, The Great Borelli, and a rival magician. That night, one of Borelli’s acts goes wrong. He escapes, but barely. So, the second lock is involved in the magic tricks.

Another client presents the third lock. Peregrine Buttons, a young Catholic deacon, asks Holmes to find a missing young woman, the strong-willed Odilie Wyndham, who has disappeared from her father’s home in Cambridge. Her doll was found in the Jesus Lock on the River Cam and it seems Odilie might be in danger.

Sherlock as always finds clues the police miss, saving innocent people from being charged with murder. Both cases were interesting and had several twists. Sherlock and Watson make a good team as usual, and the supporting characters are nicely rounded out, including a couple of women who are not content with the strictures Victorian society places on them. I could have done without some of the wandering into Watson’s past, but that’s just me – apparently I don’t really want my detective’s, or side-kick’s, personal lives to take up too much space in the story.

I admit that I enjoy most Sherlock adaptations, but this series is one of the best, in my opinion.