The Boy Sherlock Holmes's fourth case is the subtitle of this Victorian tale. Within the setting of grimy, foggy London we meet Charles Dickens and other prominent persons. To open however, young Sherlock is sitting with a girl friend in a music hall watching the star turn, an illusionist, produce a large live dragon in a cage. Ladies scream and faint, but the youngsters - the word teenagers was unknown at the time - are fascinated. Later they go backstage but the police arrive and arrest the illusionist for murdering a stage magician.

By the time of THE DRAGON TURN Sherlock is fifteen and his friend Irene sixteen. They have worked on earlier cases and slipped clues to the son of Inspector Lestrade, a trainee policeman. Sherlock lives with an eccentric apothecary and studies at university. Intrigued by what appears to have been a grisly murder with no remaining body, Sherlock sneaks to the crime scene in Cremorne pleasure gardens late at night. He makes observations and curiosity compels him to keep investigating. Irene has ambitions to sing on the stage, perhaps not realising why it was not respectable. Young women were commonly taken advantage of in return for parts, and Holmes also has to worry that his friend may be rehearsing with a murderer.

The adult Holmes had little time for women in his life, but the boy in this tale is not just familiar with girls of various classes but treats them as intelligent observant people, an unusual attitude for the time. We are shown various streets of old London, but there is not a great deal of description, more of atmosphere as a lot of the story takes place at night. To us modern readers, familiar with wildlife programmes, the dragon is no huge mystery, but at the time such giants were unknown and its savagery under these conditions is not exaggerated.

Shane Peacock clearly enjoys recreating old London and young Holmes for young adult readers, giving us a lively adventure with a few sidelines and ongoing characters. THE DRAGON TURN is a fine read for mystery fans, and shows some hardships of growing up poor during times which are ironically known for strict moral codes and family values. I felt it would suit readers from twelve upwards and Holmes fans of any age.