From Publishers Weekly
In 1890 Sherlock Holmes and his cousin Dr. Henry Vernier are summoned to France to rid the great Paris Opera House of an "opera ghost." Readers familiar with Gaston Leroux's story will be on safe ground in Siciliano's retelling. An elusive phantom threatens the management of the Opera with unnamed disasters unless he's paid "several thousand francs a month" and young and beautiful Christine Daae is cast as the lead in their productions. Under the tutelage of the "Angel of Music," a fearfully disfigured musician living in the cellars of the Opera house, Christine becomes the rage of the Paris Opera. Holmes is hired by both the theater's management and the pompous and immature Viscount de Chagny, who adores Christine, to remove the Phantom's threat to profits and love. Although Holmes does little but interact with the other characters, through him and Vernier, the author re-examines the relationship of goodness and beauty. Siciliano's tale, while not original, is wonderfully atmospheric and moves briskly.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
When a beloved fictional character is given new life, it is a treat; when two fictional creations are successfully combined, it is a rare pleasure. In this lively yet respectful pastiche, the Phantom created by Gaston Leroux comes up against Arthur Conan Doyle's remarkable detective, who has been engaged by the managers of the Paris Opera to thwart the Phantom's blackmail scheme. Siciliano (Blood Feud, Windsor, 1993) has invented several memorable supporting characters, including a beautiful but nearly blind pianist and a Watson substitute whose patience with Holmes's eccentricities is only slightly greater than that of the good doctor. The story itself takes the elements of Leroux's romantic novel and preserves characters, plot, and setting, making the most of the many cellars and mysterious passages under the Opera itself. The tone is Holmesian to the last detail, with the reader swept along to a satisfying ending. A fine addition to the Holmes canon, a summertime winner, and, one hopes, the start of a series. [In Nicholas Meyer's The Canary Trainer, Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93, Holmes also encounters the Phantom of the Opera.-Ed.]-Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svcs., Ridgecrest, Cal.
--Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Computer Support Svcs., Ridgecrest, Cal.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
