Michael Robertson Books In Order

Publication Order of Baker Street Letters Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Michael Robertson is an American author best known for the writing of the “Baker Street Letters” series of novels. Robertson lives in San Clemente, California where he works for a huge American conglomerate with offices across England and the United States. He has always been fascinated by Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series of novels, which he was reading by the time he was only eight years old. In the 1970s he started watching the Nigel Bruce/Basil Rathbone movies that also influenced his later writing. While he is inspired by Sherlock Holmes, the novels in the “Baker Street Letters” series are not about Sherlock but rather about people who write letters to him. They also do not copy the Conan Doyle style of writing even though a legacy of the Holmes stories definitely does make it into the dialogue and plotting of the novels.

Even as the “Baker Street Letters” are Robertson’s first attempt at novel writing, they are by no means his is first endeavor at writing. Michael is a trained screenwriter with several one act plays to his name. Nonetheless, his first attempt at a full length screenplay also had something to do with letters sent to Sherlock Holmes, though it was in a format very different to his Baker Street novels. He wrote the script in 1982 and managed to pitch it to a few Hollywood producers though he never managed to get anyone interested enough. Making no headway in Hollywood, he quit and went to find a real job. It was only much later that he decided to write his stories in novel format that he at last found success with the “Baker Street Letters” in 2009. Following the publication of the first novel in 2009, Warner Brothers optioned the series for a television adaptation just before the novels hit the shelves.

The overall premise of the “Baker Street Letters” is an intriguing twist on Conan Doyle’s original setting. Rather than make Sherlock into a modern detective solving modern mysteries, Robertson’s novels simply borrow his premises. Two brothers Reggie and Nigel lease 221B Baker Street, the address that the legendary Sherlock Holmes had used as an office and residence for his Victorian exploits. The lease has a bizarre clause – the two brothers have to reply to letters sent to the former Holmes address with a form letter. With so many people still believing in the Sherlock Holmes legend, the brothers receive a lot of letters one of which often sends them out on their own mysterious adventure. While Reggie is the attorney, his brother is charged with sorting the mail. This is where it gets interesting – some of the letters are sweet and short, some are crazy and long-winded, while others are a desperate plea for help. The most interesting are the one with mysterious happenings. The mysteries range from cold cases from decades ago to modern day threats to people lives to which they want help from the best detective mystery solver ever – Sherlock Holmes. While the novels of the series do not have any real connection to the Conan Doyle character, they have enough of the mystery and flesh out the characters to make for one hell of a ride. The brothers different in temperament as they are make for intriguing twist and turns that keep one engrossed right from the first page to the last.

Reggie and Nigel his brother both have legal backgrounds which means they have the intelligence and skill to do a lot that the original Sherlock Holmes might have done and even more. Nigel is a character who is always looking to do the right thing and will often find himself embroiled in dangerous and complex cases in his quest for justice. Robertson combines a mystery and sometimes even two with romance and familial relationship to make for some of the most gripping contemporary detective mysteries ever. Overall the novels are light fun reads that make for a smooth cleansing read after the heavier mystery novels of the recent past.

“The Baker Street Letters” is the first novel by Michael Robertson about two lawyer brothers that take up one of the most famous addresses in the world. They have just secured the lease of 221B Baker Street in London. They have no idea it once belonged to the legendary detective until they read the small print on the contract. The lease agreement requires that they answer all letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes in form letter. One letter that catches their attention is one about a geological surveyor in Los Angeles that goes missing after mapping out a proposed subway route. His eight year old daughter wrote a letter to Sherlock Holmes, believing him to be the only person that could help in tracking down her father or what happened to him. The letter causes quite the stir at the law offices of Nigel and Reggie. Nigel takes it upon himself to investigate the case rather than file and reply to it as instructed. Things turn even more interesting when Reggie discovers a dead body in Nigel’s office soon after he departs from California. The two cases are somehow connected and it is now up to Reggie to try to solve a case that even the original Sherlock Holmes would have loved to have.

“The Brothers of Baker Street” is the second novel involving the two brothers lucky to receive Sherlock Holmes mail. Reggie is in a state of distress as he is having problems in his relationship. Laura Rankin who he thought was the love of his life and who Nigel also likes a lot has been spending a lot of time with Lord Buxton a media mogul. Reggie has been busy working on a mysterious case that involves a London Black Cab driver that the police believe murdered two tourists from the United States. While he is working on the case, the letters to Sherlock Holmes have been coming in, including seven in quick succession from a man that Claims descent from Professor James Moriarty. The case in the novel is a bizarre one and the difference in personality between the two brothers makes it even more intriguing. It is a novel that is sure to grip one by the scruff of the neck from the first page to the last.