Didn’t realise this was part of a series, or translated from French, as the blurb on the copy I read mentioned neither! It’s an odd Holmes tale and seemed to contradict what’s known about his world, but does find a way to make it work…mostly. Set five years before the earliest Holmes tale, and seemingly before the others by these authors, so there are few familiar characters and a few unexplained elements here. Overall an interesting take on early Holmes; but I think I might have been better without certain things from the canon in it…