The Three Locks

A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, Book 4

By: Bonnie MacBird

Narrated by: Simon Darwen

A heatwave melts London as Holmes and Watson are called to action in this new Sherlock Holmes adventure by Bonnie MacBird, author of “one of the best Sherlock Holmes novels of recent memory.”

In Whitechapel, a renowned Italian escape artist dies spectacularly on stage during a performance – immolated in a gleaming copper cauldron of his wife’s design. In Cambridge, the runaway daughter of a famous don drowns, her long blonde hair tangled in the Jesus Lock on the River Cam. And in Baker Street, a malevolent locksmith exacts an unusual price to open a small silver box sent to Watson.

From the glow of the London stage to the buzzing Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, where physicists explore the edges of new science of electricity, Holmes and Watson race between the two cities to solve the murders, encountering prevaricating prestidigitators, philandering physicists and murderous mentalists, all the while unlocking secrets which may be best left undisclosed. And one, in particular, lands very close to home.

©2021 Bonnie MacBird (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

“MacBird’s artistry will keep readers eagerly turning the pages.”
—Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“Intriguing … MacBird artfully alternates among multiple plotlines, maximizing suspense. With its deep probe into the friendship between the detective and the doctor, this is a good choice for fans of Sherlock Holmes.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Perfectly captures the essence of Conan Doyle's fiction.'
—Independent

“Bonnie MacBird’s The Three Locks satisfies a hunger for more adventures of Holmes and Watson on so many levels. Not only does she perfectly capture their voices, she captures that most critical element—their humanity. Brava!”
—Leslie S. Klinger, editor, New Annotated Sherlock Holmes

“Bonnie MacBird’s sly plot and admirable sense of pacing keeps the story twisting and turning in a way that would have kept Doyle himself turning the pages.”
—Michael Sims, author of Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes

“Though stage magic features in The Three Locks, the real magician is author Bonnie MacBird, who once again brings humour, action, rigorous period detail, and the characters we love to her latest Holmes adventure.”
—Dennis Palumbo, author of the Daniel Rinaldi series, Writing from the Inside Out

“Bonnie MacBird has conjured up a captivating three-card monte of murder, mystery and magic. The Three Locks may be her best yet.”
—Dan Stashower, author of Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle

“Skilfully intertwining three very different mysteries, Bonnie MacBird’s fourth Sherlock Holmes novel is as intriguing as it is clever.”
—Love London, Love Culture

“MacBird's series grows stronger with each book and she remains the best and most faithful pastiche writer out there today – bar none.”
—The Doylockian

Outstanding entertainment.

Bonnie MacBird consistently delivers engaging characters and story lines which entertain and keep me engaged. Darwen’s performance is masterful. The Three Locks was another delightful page turner.

Could be written by Arthur Canon Doyle himself

As far as this amateur can tell, McBird writes very much as Doyle did. She does an excellent job of mimicking his grammar, vocabulary, style, and creativity. It is obvious that she has worked very hard to be this accurate. Well done! I enjoyed this 4th book very much, the best so far, I think.

Great story and well written

Victorian London details are on point and make the story feel authentic. Enjoy snd hope to see a new book from Bonnie MacBird.

Enjoyable story and narrator

I have enjoyed the series so far. The stories and narrator are good. I will watch for more.

Another winner

This ii the 3rd of the Holmes novels by McBird to which I have binge listened. These are detailed, complex, and ultimately grand, very much in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels about Holmes and Watson. They respect, delve into, and contribute to that universe, with intellect, style, and gripping action.

A little modern, but enjoyable

This is much more BBC / Cumberbatch Sherlock than Conan Doyle Sherlock despite the Victorian setting. Since I very much enjoy both of those incarnations of Holmes, that's fine by me, but it's worth noting because if you're expecting classic Sherlock the characters will seem off. Historical accuracy and atmosphere is also not too strong with there being much about the story, characters, actions and viewpoints contained within that are very modern, including at least one part of the final reveal that is really such a tired cliché in modern times that you saw it coming miles away. That part was a bit of an eye roll, but those quibbles aside, this was otherwise an enjoyable story.

The characterization and relationship between Holmes and Watson in this (once I had the right version of Holmes and Watson in mind) was highly enjoyable and the interweaving of the two cases involved kept things interesting and well paced. I enjoy a spot of well done peril in a mystery story and this one managed to include a nice bit near the end in a highly believable way.

The previous books in this series suffer more heavily from feeling too modern and a general lack of accuracy / understanding of Victorian England. I'm glad I read this one first as some of its predecessors would have put me off, but I did enjoy this book and did not find that I suffered any confusion by having read it out of order from the others.

These are great holmes and Watson oastiches

MacBird’s Holmes books are beautifully written in convincing style. Like the best pastiches (Laurie R King’s, Anthony Horowitz’s, Kamil Abdul Jabbar’s), they expand the Sherlockian ouvre into new areanas in a wholly believable way. Thank you, Ms MacBird. Please keep writing.

Truly gripping; worth every penny

A great audio listen. I quickly needed to change this to evening listening—the story and performance were too gripping to listen to while working in the shop.

Felt like the perfect, classic, Sherlock!

Performance of all the characters was exceptionally high quality and very enjoyable from start to finish

Intriguing but somewhat hard to follow

I was thrilled to purchase Bonnie MacBird's latest foray into the world of Sherlock Holmes. The story is over complicated, although quite intriguing. What troubled me about it the most is the fact that many of the characters were hard to like or cheer for. There were too many louts in the cast so to speak. However, there were touching moments when we could glimpse the "human" side of Holmes that is often overlooked in both the Canon and in fan-fiction. Overall, this book is a solid entry into the world of Holmes pastiche, despite the few flaws mentioned. Narrator Simon Darwen is excellent.