The year is 1911 and the nephew of Sherlock Holmes serves as a captain in the British Army in India. When a tiger attacks civilians outside Peshawar, Sheffield Holmes is ordered to find and kill the man-eating tiger by Major Hutchense.

The meeting between the two gives the captain a chance to get the measure of the man, and he finds him to be racist, arrogant, and entitled. It isn’t long before he suspects there’s something more to this than just hunting a tiger.

This is a fun story which takes us into a world we don’t see a lot of in comics. (And I’m a sucker for historical fiction.) We see the respect Sheffield is given by his fellow officers and his ability to feel empathy for a man-eating tiger. Like all good hunters, he respects nature and understands how man’s cruelty can make it turn against us. (A common theme throughout the story.)

Though I enjoyed it, my main quibble is that I didn’t buy Sheffield’s reasoning as to why the major goaded him and how easy it was to get his superior to come along on the hunt. Nor was there enough information presented to warrant a search of the aide’s quarters. To me, the major was projecting his own worldview onto Sheffield since they were from the same class.

I enjoyed the art quite a bit, and the coloring is terrific. The light and shadows of the sunrise and sunset on people’s clothing and faces were cinematic. The colorist gave each scene a definitive sense of time and place. It was also nice to see that Lt. Ramesh was given a good amount of “screen time” which balanced out the characters well. Every character here has a place and reason to be there, giving us a solid story with enough action and world building to make historical fiction fans happy.

Creative Team: Jeff Rider (writer), Jarret Katz (artist), Wilson Go (colorist), Justin Birch (letterer)
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