By: Elizabeth Haan
In the shadowy halls of Edwardian power, secrets are currency, and blackmail can tilt the balance of war. That’s the central premise behind A Scandalous Affair, the latest installment in Leonard Goldberg’s The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes series. With World War I casting a long and uncertain shadow, Joanna Holmes—illegitimate daughter of the legendary sleuth—must navigate a scandalous mystery that could threaten to unravel the British War Council itself.
Goldberg, a former physician turned novelist, has found a unique way to continue the Holmes legacy. In A Scandalous Affair, Joanna Holmes (née Blalock) is confronted with a case that chills the spine, not just because of its political implications but also for its human vulnerability. Sir William Radcliffe, Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of the most influential men in Britain, arrives unannounced at 221B Baker Street. His granddaughter has been photographed in a compromising romantic entanglement with a man who is most certainly not her fiancé. The blackmailer demands money—much more than the government official can quietly pay. With no other option but to avoid official channels, Sir William turns to the daughter of Sherlock Holmes and the Watsons for help.
Goldberg’s Joanna is a nurse by training, with a mind honed in forensics and a disposition that mirrors her father’s famed logic—though softened by intuition and empathy. “Creating such a daughter would not be expected to have Sherlock’s marvelous skills and would be constantly underestimated,” Goldberg explains. “Yet she still succeeds and eventually earns everyone’s admiration and confidence. Moreover, she would have feminine instincts that Sherlock lacked and which she uses effectively.”
That gendered subversion is part of the charm. Joanna is not merely Sherlock in skirts. She is her own sleuth, often underestimated by the men around her—and it’s this underestimation that allows her to outwit criminals and confound skeptics alike.
For Goldberg, the idea of continuing the Holmes legacy didn’t come from nowhere. “As a youngster, I read all of Sherlock’s stories so many times that the volumes became dog-eared,” he recalls. “I knew all the characters in depth, so it was no problem for me to feature Inspector Lestrade’s son and the son of John Watson in my novels, endowing them with some of the talents (and flaws) their fathers had. It created a nice continuum, along with the distinct Sherlockian traits that Joanna possesses.”
The novels are deeply respectful of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original canon, but Goldberg isn’t afraid to stretch beyond it. The Watson in these stories is an aging, ailing version of the original—more mentor than partner, though still keenly observant and emotionally astute. “I decided to create Watson this way so that the daughter has a solid link to her father’s past, which only Watson can provide,” Goldberg says. “Moreover, we can introduce Watson’s handsome son, a keen pathologist, and together with the daughter, they form the next-generation Holmes and Watson.”
Indeed, it’s that familial continuity—interwoven with history—that lends a special resonance to the series. The Victorian Joanna Blalock is not just a one-off character but the grandmother of the modern-day forensic pathologist of the same name who stars in Goldberg’s medical thrillers. “The idea, of course, is that the modern-day Joanna has inherited some of Sherlock Holmes’s genes,” Goldberg explains. “A more complete history goes as follows: The Victorian Joanna’s son fought for Britain as a fighter pilot in World War II, migrated to America after the war, and became the father of the modern-day Joanna while a successful banker in San Francisco.”
Goldberg’s prose balances clinical precision with heartwarming character development. Joanna’s scientific rigor is never dull; her wit is as sharp as her scalpel. Even Sherlock Holmes—long considered the embodiment of cool detachment—is revealed to have one lingering human connection: a secret letter written to Watson before his death, asking him to protect the daughter he never publicly claimed. This emotional undercurrent, introduced in The Wayward Prince, the novel preceding A Scandalous Affair, adds depth to Holmes’s often cold persona.
If A Scandalous Affair shows anything, it’s that the Holmes mythology remains alive and adaptable—and for Leonard Goldberg, the case is far from closed.
With evocative period detail, high-stakes intrigue, and a female protagonist who redefines the Holmesian archetype, A Scandalous Affair is more than just a continuation—it’s an evolution. Elementary, perhaps. But hardly ordinary.
A Scandalous Affair: A Daughter of Sherlock Holmes Mystery by Leonard Goldberg is available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at all major booksellers, in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook formats.
