From Publishers Weekly
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).Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
When Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes take the plunge into Reichenbach Falls, little did he know that eventually he would be compelled to resurrect Holmes--or, more amazingly, that countless other writers would also revive the Baker Street sleuth. Carr, author of
The Alienist (1994), is the latest to try his hand at constructing a new Holmes adventure. Where contemporary authors go wrong is in trying to replicate Conan Doyle's style and in trying to duplicate the verbal sparring between Holmes and Watson. Carr fails on both those scores, but aside from that (and that's a big aside), the novel has a number of appealing features for readers who enjoy Carr and don't mind secondhand Holmes. Chief among these is its setting, Holyrood House, the royal palace in Edinburgh. The gloomy aura of Edinburgh, particularly the Gothic pile of Holyrood, is a perfect foil for a Victorian mystery. The plot centers on two deaths during the reconstruction of parts of the palace: the suspicious accident that befell the chief architect of the refurbishing and the murder of his foreman, both near the site where Mary Queen of Scots' trusted advisor, David Rizzio, was stabbed to death three centuries before. Very improbably, the scientific-minded Holmes suggests that Rizzio himself may be avenging his death through the new murders. Great setting, intriguing history, but clumsy evocation of the inimitable Holmes.
Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
