A romantic villa near Corfu. A storm rages in the Ionian Sea, isolating the island. Nine guests. Four hotel staff. Three murders. The resolution is anything but elementary.
It’s 1960, and Ormond Basil’s star has faded — though it’s not yet extinguished. When the Italian producer Pietro Melarba invites him aboard his yacht, ostensibly to discuss a new project, Basil sees reason for hope. Under the stage name Hopalong Basil, the actor worked with the biggest names of the day — Errol Flynn, “Larry” Olivier, Joan Crawford. But he’s best known for the 15 films he made based on Sherlock Holmes stories and novels.
Basil, along with Melarba and his Lebanese girlfriend, an opera diva, stops at the tiny island of Urakos to dine at the Hotel Auslander when the storm strands them there. It’s a beautiful location, so not exactly a hardship.
Until British guest Edith Mander is found dead — hanging from the rafters of the beach cabana.
The police can’t possibly make their way out from mainland Greece. Dr. Kerabin, a Turk, examines the body and pronounces the death a suicide. But the hotel staff and the remaining guests (a German couple; two Greeks; an Auschwitz survivor and Mander’s British traveling companion) are uneasy. They look to the man they identify with one of the world’s greatest (albeit fictional) detectives.
Basil, always debonair and dignified, demurs — until “Paco” Foxa, a Spanish mystery novelist, eagerly volunteers to play Watson. The game is soon afoot. Has the duo met its Moriarty? There are two more deaths, and devilish clues left behind.
The name Ormond Basil is no accident — Basil Rathbone was an iconic real-life portrayer of Holmes. It’s one of many delightful winks Pérez-Reverte offers to readers steeped in the canon.
The Final Problem is a delightful tribute to both the Holmesian oeuvre and the golden age mystery novel. It nods to Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” as well as the classic locked-room tradition. Chapters are introduced with quotes from the Holmes tales: “I am accustomed to have mystery at one end of my cases, but to have it at both ends is too confusing.” (The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.) Foxa is a student of the great detective, and he and Ormond Basil fluidly trade quotes and observations from the stories.
The tone is literary on all levels; Basil tells the tale, his narrative peppered with fond reminiscences of mid-century celebrities. He continually insists he is not Holmes, but he clearly relishes his role in the investigation and takes the job seriously.
The Final Problem is a grand mystery with an intriguing, extremely satisfying conclusion --- as elegantly constructed an anything Holmes himself might have admired.
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