Sherlock rides again…and again
Novellas are a delight: consumable in one or two great gulps and excellent for taking on the bus or train, since they fit neatly into handbags or man bags. I was delighted, therefore, when two new Sherlock Holmes adventures from MX publishing dropped through my letterbox recently. In this case they are both by well-established authors with many previous books under their belts.
The first, Sherlock Holmes and the Strange Death of Brigadier-General Delves by Tim Symonds packs a lot into its 129 pages. The plot, covering many decades, starts with a chance meeting between Dr Watson and an old army colleague from their days in Afghanistan. ‘Maiwand Mike’ Fenlon tells how he is on his way to Guernsey to assist his erstwhile commander, the eponymous Brigadier-General Delves, with his memoirs. Shortly afterwards, Watson receives an urgent letter from Fenlon, stating that he is in prison awaiting trial for the murder of Delves and entreating Sherlock Holmes’ help.
Holmes agrees to travel to Guernsey even though Fenlon has surprisingly refused to enter a plea. If we readers imagine all is now set up for the usual pyrotechnic display of genius from the detective – unravelling the mystery – we will be surprised. Has Holmes got it wrong for once? Only many years after the events, can the truth be revealed.
Tim Symonds clearly knows his history as well as he knows the Canon. The tale, though fictional, is rooted in fact, the author telling us he averages 25 books of source material for each of his books, so, as well as the story itself, Tim Symonds includes around 30 pages of explanatory notes, fascinating in themselves.
The second book, Sherlock Holmes and the Crystal Palace Murder by Johanna Rieke, is another enjoyable read. I wasn’t clear, however, how the first sixty pages, before we get to the nitty-gritty of the murder, fits in to the rest of the story, except that it introduces the murky figure of the German-Knife Grinder, of whom, I feel, we are bound to hear more in the future. In this first section, Holmes explains to Watson in some detail what was behind his apparent death at the Reichenbach Falls, and for me it dragged a little.
However, once the murder mystery starts, the story bounces on most satisfactorily. A man has been found with his throat slashed in the middle of the maze at the Crystal Palace, and it is up to Holmes, in the face of plodding police work, to reveal the truly nefarious reason for his death.
Johanna Rieke lives in Switzerland and writes in German, more proof of the universality of Holmes’ appeal. She is a mathematician as well as an author and the coded message that Holmes takes it upon himself to solve is delightfully abstruse. Like Tim Symonds, she has done her background homework well, so there is a pleasing authenticity to the detail, even if Watson comes across as a little pedantic in relaying it. I found the descriptions of the original Crystal Palace most fascinating, born as I was not far from there and, as a child only knowing of it as an intriguing name. How sad that the Palace itself, part of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and subsequently moved to South London from Hyde Park, was eventually destroyed by fire.
Both books are available from Amazon and from the Book depository.
