If Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes had a sister, she might act like Eldamunde Cunningham.
The unusually named heroine of The Eldamunde Cunningham Mysteries, published in March by Canada's Gneiss Press, is a formidable amateur sleuth in her 20s. The year is 1895 and she shares rooms with the widowed narrator of these short stories.
Like Holmes, Elda instantly deduces all manner of telling details at her first glance at the many people who come to her for help. She also from time to time employs disguise, and even more often ruses which involve false names. Many of these charming tales, as in the Canon, turn out in the end to not be criminal matters at all.
But this bohemian woman is in no way intended to be a sort of Sherlock Holmes in drag. She is a fully rounded character with her own peculiar traits, notably her devotion to betting on horse races. Her irascible landlady, Mrs. Nash, is nothing like the sweet Mrs. Hudson. (But don't they both have the names of automobiles?)
As befits a collection of 13, many of the stories apparently have an element of the supernatural. Titles include "The Spectre in the Celler," "The Chillbank Ghost," "The Fortune Teller," and "The Nine Witches." But the solutions are as down-to-earth as, say, The Hound of the Baskervilles and "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire."
All of the stories are well-written, enjoyable to read, and satisfying to the last page. If for fans of Sherlock Holmes they are reminiscent of the Master, that's a pleasant bonus.
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