It takes place after Meyer's other Holmes pastiches, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The West End Horror, and The Canary Trainer.

[2][3] As with Meyer's other pastiches, the novel features Holmes meeting real-life historical personages such as Constance Garnett,[2] Israel Zangwill[4] and Chaim Weizmann.

[5] The book made the bestseller list of The Los Angeles Times in November 2019.

[6][7] Kirkus Reviews found the mystery "slight" and said of the purportedly previously undiscovered adventure "that [it] might just as well have stayed hidden.

[8] Joseph Goodrich of Mystery Scene positively reviewed the novel calling it a "a masterful concoction" and "an effective thriller, rich in atmosphere and period detail"[9] The Washington Post reviewer Michael Dirda felt that the book has some "fine Sherlockian flourishes" but ultimately "the novel often feels talky and perhaps unavoidably somber and portentous.