This pastiche is one of the finest Holmes volumes I've ever read. Watson has not been long at Baker Street, and is only just beginning to realize the extraordinary talents of his companion and consulting detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. At this time Edwin Booth, brother of the infamous John Wilks Booth, the assassin responsible for the murder of President Abraham Lincoln, has come to the stage in London and soon thereafter contacts Sherlock Holmes to help him solve a deadly mystery. He is being stalked wherever he goes by a man with murderous intentions. 
 Watson is astonished to discover that the great detective and America's finest thespian actor are first cousins. Holmes rather unwillingly takes the case out of family obligation, but it leads him into intriguing depths. Booth is threatened once more before his attacker vanishes. A few days later the actor is set to return to America and the consulting detective and doctor agree to accompany him. But things quickly grow dangerous in New York when Booth's bodyguard is murdered and the words, "Sic Semper Tyrannis" are left behind. Could the matter have something to do with Edwin's infamous younger brother? 
 Holmes undertakes a magnificent reenactment and follows the trail that the hunted assassin took that fateful April, with Watson on his heels. What they uncover is a tangle of betrayal and secrets, as well as a hidden truth that could unravel and alter history as we know it. 
 The Surrogate Assassin is a masterpiece! Leppek blends perfectly together a fabric work of fiction and fact so that you aren't certain where one stops and the other begins. At the climax you'll find yourself marveling at Holmes' genius, as well as the author's fascinating imagination. As you read, you actually believe the words flowing across the page; it's impossible to divide fact and fancy. Holmes is alive and well yet, and this story puts all other pastiches to shame. The author must have spent an incredible amount of time in study of Booth and his family; his attention to detail is magnificent. Doyle himself would have been impressed. We'd just better pray Leppek doesn't decide to write history books... the entire history of our nation could be easily altered by such a magnificent writer.