It's Christmas time soon, and the goose is nearly being bought. But lo – a priceless gem has gone missing. And Sherlock Holmes is involved. This clearly is 'The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle' – one of the more likeable little tales from Conan Doyle. Except it clearly isn't, as all the talk on the streets is about air fryers, and actually a second priceless gem has also vanished. And having to investigate that would be so annoying when there is a series of dead Father Christmases to also look into – were it not for the fact that Holmes is sure the two cases are linked...

With not one but three books at once, this is a new series from a bloke who has done well out of spinning modern riffs on the Famous Five already. It's quite the slender but quite the fitting affair, with olde timey Paget illustrations given new captions for the yucks, contrasting nicely with the feeling of intrigue from the cases – and the sense that Watson was actually more hindrance than help with the investigations. A standard pastiche might have sustained the comedy more – here the jokes slip away for the second half to concentrate on the actual mystery, and perhaps three books are going to look like overkill with the "wow, isn't 2025 different from 1895?!" mindset. Both the other two feature the same quip involving punctuation pedantry, after all. But as a small frippery they're perfectly acceptable – even if the other two spend more effort on getting nicely entwined in the original canon stories.

It's Christmas and along with deciding what presents to buy each other, Sherlock and Watson investigate the murdered Santas as well as the missing artefacts from the London Museum.
Along with the other two books of this series, Bruno Vincent has written an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours with our two heroes.

'Sherlock Holmes and the Air Fryer of Doom' by Bruno Vincent.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really enjoy these little stories, I love the sketches throughout them aswell. These stories are great little whodunits aswell as being very funny. If you're a Sherlock fan then give these stories a read.
It’s Christmas at Baker Street, and Holmes is obsessed his most fiendish of unsolved cases: someone is murdering Santas across London!
As Holmes and Watson struggle through the Christmas-shopping crowds, they must catch this most dastardly and un-Christmassy of villains, while sneakily trying to purchase each other’s Christmas presents (they are in the world’s least-secret Secret Santa, after all).
Meanwhile, with the museums of London refusing to return cultural artefacts to their countries of origin, someone is taking matters into their own hands, and stealing back what was stolen.
Are the cases connected, and could an ancient air fryer of demonic power hold the key to the mystery of the murdered Santas? And more importantly, can you prepare a whole Christmas dinner in an air fryer*?
*Whether you can or not, Dr Watson’s going to give it a jolly good try. Ho Ho Holmes!