"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Brothers of Baker Street and Sleight of Hand

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's "Waiting On" Wednesday selections are:

The Brothers of Baker Street

By Michael Roberston

Publish Date: March 1, 2011 by Minotaur Books

From Booklist~
Sherlock Holmes isn't back, but Dr. Moriarty is, sort of, in this delightful romp that offers more tension and suspense than a dozen fat thrillers with bloody knives on the cover.  It still manages to be funny, rather in the Kingsley Amis manner.  Set in modern London, with plenty of Foster's and Jaguars, the novel has two leading men in the British manner, and for all their silly banter, they'd best not be underrated.  Reggie is a barrister who hasn't let failure slow him; he's rebounding with a new client.  His brother, Nigel, fresh from therapy designed to make losers feel better, is there to carry the plot when Reggie falters.  They aren't just any two failing lawyers.  Their offices are on the 200 block of Baker Street, and their leaase requires that they answer all mail address to Sherlock Holmes.  Naturally, that leads to the occasional spot of sleuthing.  This time, they tackle an ersatz Moriarty and his villainous scheme to besmirth the beloved London taxis.  The last third of the novel, with its murder-and-chase scene, is one of the finest, scariest sequences in current crime fiction.  But why doesn't Robertson explain that the name fo the drivers' pub, Flounder and Dab, is Cockney rhyming slang for taxicab?  For anglophiles, crime-o-philes, and all fans of wonderful writing.

It seems as though the mystery bug has struck again, and my interest has been drawn out into London along Baker Street.  I love a good mystery and it's interesting to see modern mysteries like this one especially with two protagonists living under a famous address.  It will be interesting to see just how Reggie and Nigel fill in the shoes of Sherlock Holmes and tackle with the likes of the villainous Moriarty.

Sleight of Hand

By Peter S. Beagle

Publish Date: March 1, 2011 by Tachyon Publications

From Amazon.com~

Abundant with tales of quiet heroism, life-changing decisions, and determined searches for deep answers, this extraordinary collection of contemporary fantasy explores the realms between this world and the next. From the top of the Berlin Wall to the depths of the darkest seas, gods and monsters battle their enemies and innermost fears, yet mere mortals make the truly difficult choices. A slightly regretful author and a vengeful-but-dilapidated dragon square off over an abandoned narrative; the children of the Shark God demand painful truths from their chronically absent father; and a bereaved women sacrifices herself to change one terrible moment, effortlessly reversed by a shuffle of the deck. Whether melancholic, comedic, or deeply tragic, each new tale is suffused with misdirection and discovery, expressed in the rich and mesmerizing voice of a masterful storyteller.

Peter S. Beagle has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read The Last Unicorn. Having the chance to meet him in person was a great experience, and he is a charismatic man, as quoted by my dad who also had the chance to meet and speak with him.  And any author who gets my dad interested in reading a fiction book is amazing in my opinion.  The fact that this book is an anthology of short stories makes it a must-have for my personal library since Beagle does short stories just as amazingly as he does novels.  Yay for pre-ordering!