A Holmes and Garden Story Books in Order

This series is Andrea Frazer having fun with detective fiction itself. The central pair are Sherman Holmes and John Garden, two men whose names tell you straight away that the books are playing with Sherlock Holmes territory, but in a modern, much more chaotic, and deliberately less polished way.

Yes, the names are part of the joke.

In The Curious Case of the Black Swan Song, Sherman Holmes and John Garden meet by chance while staying at the Black Swan hotel. Both are at turning points in their lives, and both share a love of Conan Doyle's stories. When murder turns up in the hotel, they do what enthusiastic mystery readers are always tempted to do: they start investigating. By the end, they decide to formalize the partnership and set themselves up as private investigators.

That gives the series its shape. These are not detectives backed by a police force or brilliant enough to glide through a case untouched. Holmes can be pompous, eager, and slightly absurd in his own self-image. Garden is steadier and often more grounded, which makes him a useful counterweight. Their friendship is the real point of the books. The mysteries matter, but the growing rhythm between the two men matters just as much.

Frazer treats the Holmes connection with affection rather than reverence. She borrows the energy of the old stories, the double-act structure, the delight in improbable names and social oddballs, but she places it in a modern small-town setting where things are more awkward and less majestic. Even Holmes's cat, Colin, adds to the sense that this is a detective world with its collar slightly undone.

The tone is comic, but not weightless. The Adventure of the Dead Wild Bore shows how the setup works in shorter form when a meeting of Sherlock devotees, the Quaker Street Irregulars, turns nasty and then murderous. Frazer clearly enjoys the way fandom, ego, and old quarrels can create a very particular kind of suspect pool.

These books are best read if you like crime fiction enough to enjoy a sideways glance at its habits. They are not hard-edged thrillers, and they are not straight parody either. They sit somewhere in between: playful, chatty, and character-first, with real mysteries underneath the wink.

If the Falconer books are Frazer's traditional lane, Holmes and Garden is her more mischievous one. Start with The Curious Case of the Black Swan Song and go from there.