I Would Love to See A Series with These Characters

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I loved Holmes, Marple, and Poe by James Patterson and Brian Sitts, but it wasn’t love at first sight. I had a very hard time getting into the book. I kept falling asleep while reading, and as I progressed further into the narrative, I wasn’t feeling the page turning pull that a Patterson, or any other police procedural/private investigator book worth it’s salt normally has. A little over 100 pages in, and feeling nothing, I went to Amazon to check reviews wondering if others had felt similarly. I did a cursory search, but although I saw a few 3 star reviews, nothing that indicated my level of frustration. I kept on reading, determined to find the spark that would get the ball rolling. That push didn’t occur for me until about page 191 in a 345 page book, but once it started, it was hard to put down, and I was loving it. 


When I finished the book, I went back to the reviews again, but this time started with the one star ratings, and there I found those kindred spirits who felt the slow start was terminal, with a small number who I suspect abandoned the quest. I’m glad I persevered, because it was great, but no one should have to wade through more than half a book before it gets great. At this point I’d love to see a series with these characters, and would definitely read the next one. But if the action in the second book languishes well over half the book, I’m out. 

The three named characters in the title each have distinct strengths that make them unique in their analysis of crime and evidence as Private Investigators. Poe and Holmes battle demons from their past and end up with a reliance upon illicit substances (Holmes) and alcohol (Poe). They buy a building in New York City, put their offices on the ground floor, and all live in separate apartments on a higher floor, which seems to work well for the book. Didn’t TV’s Ironside live in his San Francisco office building? At one point Poe goes out to buy a cat for Marple because she saw a mouse, and is not a rodent fan. He goes to a shelter, and returns with a large black cat with orange yellow eyes and hires the girl running the front desk because she identified one of Poe’s comments as a line from one of writer Poe’s works. She turns out to be highly efficient. Another character that connects with this group is a police detective, who is attracted to Poe. 

The cast of characters is strong, and they all have chemistry. A number of different cases are assigned to them by the police, or by clients contacting them once publicity gets out about the first case they solve. Once the cases started to heat up in the second half of the book, so did interest, and a desire to see more from this crew of crime solvers. 

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