1 of 1 copy available
It all begins familiarly enough: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are summoned to the aid of Queen Victoria in Scotland by an encrypted telegram from Holmes' brother, Mycroft, a royal advisor. Rushed northward on a royal train they soon learn of the brutal killings of two of the Queen's servants who had been working on the renovation of the famous and forbidding Royal Palace of Holyrood.
Mycroft has enlisted his brother to help solve the murders that may be key elements of a much more elaborate and pernicious plot on the Queen's life. But the circumstances of the two victims' deaths also call to Holmes' mind the terrible murder of "The Italian Secretary," David Rizzio. Only Rizzio was murdered three centuries ago.
Told with his unique feel for historical detail and the architecture of human evil, Caleb Carr's brilliant new offering takes the Conan Doyle tradition to remarkable new heights.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 1, 2005 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780743551588
- File size: 193002 KB
- Duration: 06:42:05
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Both Sherlockians and fans of Carr's Alienist series will enjoy this re-creation, commissioned by Conan Doyle's estate and a strong addition to the Holmes oeuvres. Simon Prebble delivers the sweetness and native intelligence of Holmes's documentarian, Dr. Watson, and the laser-like genius of the Great Detective himself as the two travel to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh to investigate a grisly murder and the possibility of a ghost. In a precise narration, Prebble paints all the atmospherics of the Scots settings and lends credibility to Carr's climax, which, while putting to good use his expertise in military history, is a bit over the top. Prebble's crisp narration helps integrate the historical murder of the Italian secretary and the further adventures of Holmes and Watson. E.K.D. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine -
April 4, 2005
Writing a Sherlock Holmes tale is, for popular writers, equivalent to playing Hamlet for male actors: a challenge that few refuse and many regret. Bestselling author Carr (The Angel of Darkness
, etc.) acquits himself with honor, though not high honors, in this short novel that pits Holmes, Watson and Mycroft Holmes against conspirators at Queen Victoria's Royal Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh, Scotland. When the men are killed at Holyrood in a fashion similar to the slaying centuries before of David Rizzio, an Italian confidant of Mary, Queen of Scots, Mycroft, who is Victoria's head of intelligence, calls upon his brother and Watson to help solve the mystery. Are the killings the work of Scottish nationalists? Or perhaps the sign of a restless ghost? From the latter question, and the novel's primary setting of the dank castle, emanates a well-drawn atmosphere of gloom that makes this story a nice companion to The Hound of the Baskervilles
. Holmes fans and scholars should be pleased with this novel, which generally hews to "the Canon" (unlike, say, Nicholas Meyer's Seven-Per-Cent Solution
) and reflects a deep knowledge and understanding of Holmesiana, but the primary base for this novel will be, of course, Carr fans, who won't be quite as thrilled—for while the novel captivates, it matches neither of Carr's previous megasellers in plot invention or depth of character. Still, this should hit bestsellers lists, though not in a major way. (May 10).
FYI:
The afterword by Lellenberg explains that this novel grew from a story that Carr was writing for a forthcoming Carroll & Graf anthology of original Holmes stories dealing with the supernatural,
Ghosts of Baker Street. Lellenberg goes on to plead to Carr that he write
a novel featuring both Holmes and Laszlo Kreizler, protagonist of
The Alienist and
The Angel of Darkness.
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