The Casebook of Doakes and Haig is a series of fantasy/mystery stories set in an alternate Victorian England. Doakes and Haig are partners in a long-standing business making "Recipe Sweetener" which seems to be some sort of savoury sauce although you never learn any more than that. To all intents and purposes they are just 2 ordinary businessmen. However, not everything is as it seems – Haig is a leprechaun!

Our erstwhile heroes start to find that the "Recipe Sweetener" is not as lucrative as it used to be so when they are asked to investigate some unusual happenings around the death of one of their more regular clients they take the opportunity to have a slight change of direction and make a bit extra cash!

This book is wonderfully easy to read! I finished the whole thing in 2 days. The writing style is very smooth and relaxing and leaves you with a warm contented glow. It felt like the perfect book to read when curled up in your favourite comfy armchair wearing fluffy slippers and drinking a cup of cocoa! Very gentle with well described characters and interesting plot lines. The only criticism I can make is that our leprechaun has a periodic identity crisis...

Let me explain. As a leprechaun he is Irish. However, the term "boyo" is classically Welsh! (Trust me, as an English woman with a part Welsh husband and a half-Irish father-in-law I do know the difference!). Don't get me wrong, this didn't spoil my enjoyment of this Casebook one iota. It just made me smile.

The format of the mysteries was very reminiscent of "A Study In Scarlet". Like the classical Holmes tales the stories are more involved with the interplay between the characters and the lengths they go to during the investigation than with the resolution of the mystery. In some ways the final "whodunnit" is almost irrelevant.

This is a book guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of any fantasy/mystery fan. Well worth a read!