REVIEWS

Read­er­’s opin­ions:

Mike McSwig­gin, asso­ci­ate edit­or of The Baker Street Journ­al, Vol. 75, No. I /​ Spring 2025:

get edalji by Rose H. Schmollek. Cologne: Krimikiosk Ver­lag, 2024.  378pp. $92. Okay, this one is a stun­ner! So much so that I am doing a more in-depth illus­trated review in anoth­er pub­lic­a­tion. Firstly, the author is really Petra Weber, a Ger­man true crime pod­caster and crime writer (under yet anoth­er pseud­onym). Rose H. Schmollek is an ana­gram of Sher­lock Holmes. The book itself is encased in a dec­or­ated, com­plic­ated box. And the book is really two books in a unique, flip over con­fig­ur­a­tion. Both the first chapter and final chapter of the first book are in pas­tiche form, with Wat­son as nar­rat­or. In between is the George Edalji case, as aided by Arthur Con­an Doyle. The second volume rep­res­ents extens­ive research the author did into the case of George Edalji and his sup­posed crimes. Under­neath the dual hard­cov­er book is a soft­cov­er book­let of end­notes. And under­neath that is a beau­ti­ful book­plate with the name of the own­er of this volume. If the price is too steep, an e‑book ver­sion is avail­able from the same web­site for only $11.  But the high cost of the print copy is entirely jus­ti­fied giv­en the present­a­tion. 
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Toby Neal, journ­al­ist in Shrop­shire (UK) for 40 years
( for the full art­icle, please vis­it Express & Star, 16 Feb­ru­ary 2025):

But now a book called Get Edalji presents com­pel­ling new research using mod­ern tech­niques and uncov­er­ing import­ant clues – includ­ing the inad­vert­ent role the Express and Star may have played in trig­ger­ing those events in late Vic­tori­an and Edwar­d­i­an Bri­tain.

The book finally provides vin­dic­a­tion for the poor maid who unjustly took the rap for the earli­est let­ters, being bound over for six months. 
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Dr Chris Alder­man, Mem­ber of the Police His­tory Soci­ety in the Soci­ety’s News­let­ter 17 Feb­ru­ary 2025:

Rose H Schmollek’s (ana­gram for …) study does not belong to the age Tik­Tok and You­Tube Shorts. The read­er­’s patience is rewar­ded with a cre­at­ive and thought­ful account of the tri­als and tribu­la­tions of all involved. 

Schmollek rightly states that ‘tak­ing sides’ is an obstacle to under­stand­ing this com­plex case. So she forensic­ally exam­ines the sur­viv­ing primary sources relat­ing to the case, weav­ing char­ac­ter, time and place into her account. Schmollek’s ana­lys­is of the case chal­lenges Doyle’s conclusions. 

Innov­at­ively, Schmollek uses the skills of a Forensic Lin­guist to exam­ine the avail­able pois­on pen let­ters – res­ult­ing in very inter­est­ing find­ings. 
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Steph­en Ross – Mys­tery Writer*, book review 26 Janu­ary 2025 :
(For the full art­icle, please vis­it his webpage)

“Sir Arthur Con­an Doyle wouldn’t like this book, but Sher­lock Holmes would.

Immerse your­self in the social fab­ric of Eng­land 120 years ago and a mys­tery will you find intriguing and puzz­ling. It’s def­in­itely a three-pipe prob­lem, as Sher­lock Holmes would say.

Sher­lock Holmes fre­quently solved his mys­ter­ies through the beha­viour of man, by giv­ing con­sid­er­a­tion to human psy­cho­logy. This book does, too. 

GET EDALJI reopens the case. It under­takes a fresh, up-to-date exam­in­a­tion of the events, and it draws dif­fer­ent con­clu­sions to those of Doyle. It uncov­ers evid­ence that oth­ers who have writ­ten about the case have not. It untangles the web.

*Short stor­ies and nov­el­ettes of Steph­en Ross (New Zea­l­and) appeared in the Ellery Queen Mys­tery Magazine, the Alfred Hitch­cock Mys­tery Magazine, sev­er­al Mys­tery Writers of Amer­ica antho­lo­gies, and oth­er magazines, antho­lo­gies, and pub­lic­a­tions; he was nom­in­ated for an Edgar Award, a Der­rin­ger Award, a Thrill­er Award, and was a 2010 Ellery Queen Read­ers Award final­ist — 2018 win­ner of the Rose Trophy for Best Short Story.