"You're a hostage to your own role, that image of the perfect detective that your movies left in all of our minds."

Basil Rathbone, the quintessential personification of Sherlock Holmes, is on a Greek island having met a film director who wants him to be involved in a new project.

It is the mid 1960's and Basil ( Ormond or Hoppy) has been invited to join the director on his yacht when they decide to stop off at a small Greek island. The weather changes and they are unable to leave. A small group of guests and staff are present. The suspicious death of one guest results in the entourage asking Mr Rathbone to use his experience as Sherlock Holmes to investigate the death - he is accompanied by a Spanish author Paco Foxá - who takes the mantle as Watson.

More mystery and death ensues. This is a wonderfully clever novel. Arturo Pérez- Reverte's knowledge and research of the Sherlock books and Basil Rathbone films is impressive - intertwining quotes and acknowledging events.

This is also an exploration of murder mystery novels and the role of the author and the construction of the genre; there is a sense of cat and mouse in the book as the murderer appears to be playing games with Rathbone.

A thoroughly enjoyable and equally fascinating read. Highly recommended for lovers of murder mysteries

"The game is afoot, Watson, I said to myself. The game is afoot."

It is 1960. A group of strangers is stranded on an island in the Aegean Sea near Corfu, cut off by extreme storms. All are from completely different backgrounds and events are narrated in first person by Ormond Basil, an ageing Hollywood actor famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and loosely based on Basil Rathbone. When one of the group is found dead – suicide or murder – the scene is set for an exciting detective story worthy of Agatha Christie – or, indeed, Arthur Conan Doyle.

The perspective is all we would expect from the elegant, cultured Rathbone – or Sherlock Holmes: wry, intelligent and a very engaging narrator. There is much interesting discussion of art and life and, while the Greek police are unable to access the island, the guests look to Basil to use his sleuthing skills to solve the mystery. We are constantly reminded that he was actually only an actor while, at the same time, he approaches the challenge with all the panache and inductive skills of Holmes himself. A Spanish writer of ‘noir’ detective novels stands in as Dr Watson, himself showing an encyclopaedic knowledge of Basil’s films and Conan Doyle’s stories. This also allows us to appreciate the genre’s development from the gentlemanly style of Conan Doyle to Raymond Chandler’s more hard-bitten private eyes.

This is an excellent novel on all levels. As a work of detective fiction, it is outstanding with all the twists and turns, and unexpected character revelations, of the best in the genre. It also gives a range of interesting insights into Hollywood life during the first half of the twentieth century with lots of irreverent name-dropping – Gary Cooper, David Niven, William Wyler – and discussion of film technique.

But this is also a meta-novel about detective fiction as a genre and the relationship between life and art. How much of an actor’s performance is fabrication – or just work as Spencer Tracy would have it – and how much of their ‘true’ selves do they give? Where does Ormond Basil end and Sherlock Holmes begin?

And with all the glitz and glamour of this world of the imagination, there are also constant reminders of life’s darker shadows: not only the actual murders but also the spectre of Auschwitz and the reverberations of two World Wars. As Basil avers, the ‘sinister’ places. With such a mix of nationalities – British, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, German, Austrian, Lebanese – tensions and differences are bound to arise even without the murders to add an extra frisson.

This is an outstanding achievement and an excellent read.

We start with renown (but a bit washed up) actor Ormond Basil bumping into an old friend who invites him to stay on his boat. Long story short and there's bad weather coming and they are forced to move to a hotel on the nearby Greek Island of Utakos, joining an eclectic cast of staff and guests, one of whom, Edith Mander, ends up dead. Hanged in a cabana in what looks like an apparent suicide which tickles Basil's spidey senses - well he is best known for his many many depictions of the great detective Sherlock Holmes on the silver screen - so he makes his thoughts known. And with the aforementioned weather preventing the Greek Police from coming, consensus agrees that he should take the lead detective job...
And so begins what started off as a locked door mystery, spiralling into multiple homicide as, just as he is getting started with his investigations, the doctor who examined Edith's body, is also found dead.
I am a big reader of translated crime and have read many French, German, and Scandinavian - this is my first from a Spanish author. Not sure that's significant, just something I noticed going in. But I have to say that it was translated very well indeed and shortly after starting I actually forgot I wasn't reading it in its original format, so seamless a job the translator did.
Anyway... I found Basil (a nod to Basil Rathbone methinks) to be a very good amateur sleuth. I say amateur, he obviously has a whole wealth of knowledge and "experience" from playing one of the best in the business as Holmes undoubtably was and the way the author linked the crime(s) at hand with Holmes' cases was sublime. Conversely, I did get bored of all the name dropping and anecdotes. I found that somewhat distracting at times and it did all get a bit waring. Sometimes too much is too much!
And that ending - spoilers prevent me from banging on about it but... well.. I never saw THAT coming in a month of Sundays. Hats off to the author for completely flummoxing me. Having also confused me for the majority, only to lead me into making conclusions of my own and then pulling the carpet out from under my feet!
I'm now on a bit of a mission to check the author out further, see what else of his back catalogue has been translated. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.