Reggie Heath and his brother Nigel Heath, Lawyers (or should I say Barristers?) in London have taken up offices in a large building occupying the entire 200 block on Baker street. As you know 221b Baker Street was the address of the famous (and fictional) consulting detective Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Reggie was unaware but over the years thousands of letters have been mailed to Mr. Holmes at this address. The building lease requires that these letters be responded to and filed. It is one of these letters upon which the complications of this story rides.
An 8 year old little girl in Los Angeles had sent a letter years ago asking Mr. Holmes to help her find her missing father. He had left her and her mother under strange circumstances involving gambling and a geological survey. The girl included a copy of the geological survey with the letter. It was Nigel’s job to send out a form letter response and then file the letter, but Nigel instead decided to go off to America to see if he could help the writer, now a young lady. Nigel felt from the letter that she must be in some danger. Unbeknownst to Nigel he left the dead body of the law practice secretary on the floor next to his desk in an office that had been violently searched.
Of course Reggie must call in the police who immediately suspect Nigel since it was his office and he seems to be missing. Reggie tries to cover for his brother and then goes off to Los Angeles himself to find his brother and try to clear the suspicion of murder from him. It turns out to be pretty hard to find Nigel and things get complicated when Reggie discovers that the survey is of the location where a new subway is under construction. The survey shows large deposits of methane gas, which is highly explosive and should have prevented construction of a tunnel through this area. However, the survey used to get permits for the tunnel did not show the gas deposits. It was a fake.
The young girl’s father was the author of the legitimate survey. One of the construction workers had been killed in an explosion already and Reggie must get the real survey to the authorities to prevent further deaths. However there are some wealthy men who don’t want that survey to come to light and are willing to do anything, including murder, to stop Reggie and Nigel.
In a final confrontation in the tunnel Reggie and Nigel manage to escape being shot but a big explosion in the tunnel injures them badly and kills the desperate tunnel entrepreneurs. Reggie and Nigel return to London where Reggie exposes his office clerk as a spy for the bad guys. Unfortunately Reggie does not have the desire to settle down with Laura, his girlfriend who had been helping him in his search for Nigel. The ending is not, therefore, as nice as it could have been.
“The Baker Street Letters” is a well crafted story deserving a 7 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
