Sherlock Holmes And The King's Evil [Paperback]

This is the fourth collection of Sherlock Holmes tales by this author and it continues a series of excellent books. "The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes" and "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt (UK: Sherlock Holmes and the Running Noose)" contained tales that involved Holmes in historical mysteries of the 19th and 20th Centuries, while "The Execution of Sherlock Holmes" concentrated on Holmes and characters from his past.

This present collection contains tales that exhibit Thomas' deep knowledge of British crime and its more complicated manifestations. Each of the novellas presents a complex and unexpected tale of events unique to Britain and, particularly, to the British criminal. The only exception is the final entry, which tells the story of the Zimmerman telegram, the trigger event that brought the United States into The Great War.

The Case of the Tell-tale Hands tells of a unique method of blackmail and the victim's equally unique response. It is a dark and chilling tale, to which Holmes and Watson act as audience. Holmes explains the matter to Watson, but neither is able to divert the destiny set in motion by the blackmailer.

The Case of the King's evil is another dark and confused tale. Murder has been done, but the identities of the murderer and the victim are both in question. Further, the method used to perform the murder is even more in question. Holmes, as is his way, discovers all and acts as final judge and jury. He learns more than his client expects and offers a surprising sentence to the guilty.

In The Case of the Portugese Sonnets, Holmes undertakes an investigation into the world of Nineteenth Century Literary forgery. The remarkable materials made available by the mysterious death of a well-known Literay agent/blackmailer threaten to blacken the names of a number of English lumenaries (and to line the pockests of some less than respectable hangers-on). Holmes and Watson are asked to bring some order out of the chaos his death has inaugurated and the results are a triumph of scientific detective work.

The Case of Peter the Painter is a classic example of Winston Churchill's stint as Home Secretary. Holmes discovers evidence of Anarchist activities in Houndsditch and Churchill calls out the Scots Guards. Sherlock and Mycroft, working together, manage to stave off mass murder and to avoid rioting and revolution. The activities of Londoners during this set of circumstances echo those of The Blitz thirty years later, `Business as usual,' in the midst of explosions and gunfire. Even the mysterious magician Chung Ling Soo has a part to play in this fascinating narrative.

In The Case of the Zimmermann Telegram, the author uses Holmes to explain the events that led to the exposure of the telegram transmitted by the German Foreign Office through the US diplomatic pouch as a courtesy and then sent by commercial telegraph service to the German Counsel in Mexico City. The problem was that the note instructed the Cousel to propose that Mexico attack the United States and make Mexican Port facilities available to German submarines conducting unrestricted attacks on nuetral shipping. The release of this telegram, as decoded by the British, brought the US into the Great War.

Donald Thomas has studied and written about the world of British Crime to the point where his understanding of the subject is encyclopedic. His characters and situations are drawn from life and he uses Holmes as no other writer could to track down and foil the very real sorts of criminals he depicts.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones; June, 2009

British author Donald Thomas cranks out five new adventures involving everyone's favorite detective in this 2009 release from Pegasus Books. Although I was aware of Thomas' Holmes pastiches, this is the first collection of his I've read. Having dutifully slogged through SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE KING'S EVIL, I have to say I won't be looking for more of the same!

KING'S EVIL has Holmes and Watson invsetigating the odd behavior of an English Lord, the disappearance of two brothers in an isolated village, the supposed death of a blackmailer, German plans to invade America, etc. That all sounds interesting but, for the life of me, I couldn't get into Thomas' storylines. The five tales were strictly paint-by-number affairs that, in no way, approximated the spirit or warmth of Doyle's originals. In each tale, the narrative was bogged down by tedious explanations of something or other, a literary device that Doyle rarely used. When he did, he never flogged it to death like Thomas. Then too, the Holmes-Watson relationship was perfunctory at best; ditto the Victorian atmosphere. To be honest, I had to force myself to complete the book.

If you're a dedicated Holmes fan, by all means, take a look at SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE KING'S EVIL. You may find it wonderfully well-written and exciting. I didn't...and can't recommend it.

Personally, these don't fit my image of Sherlock Holmes stories. The original tales are short cracking adventures with characters who leap off the page in all their eccentricity. These are all multichapter efforts that bog down in detail, and Holmes and Watson are pale shadows of themselves. Whatever Holmes is smoking has chilled him out considerably, and Watson may have had a drink or two. He's definitely wordier than usual and in the title story practically repeats himself for a chapter. What really put me off my stride was the 'telltale hands' story, as i'm not sure what the author thought he achieved with it. It was a little gem when it was Oscar Wilde's short story 'Lord Arthur Savile's Crime', but here the author's stomped all the humour out of it and twisted the perspective around so that Holmes can draw some conclusions that sometimes feel more like wild guesses (a man who wears gloves must be afraid of people reading his palm? And i mean random people like the servants) and then stay entirely uninvolved while the original conclusion plays out. A sour-spirited little coda doesn't help. All in all, didn't satisfy my Holmes craving.