beishir

Harry Houdini meets Sherlock Holmes. I had reasonable expectations going into this book and I was disappointed.

I found a couple of occurrences in the book a bit hard to fathom. And, I didn't generally care for Stashower's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.

Holmes generally is not a polite guy. He is more interested in the cerebral and quite often steps on toes, not out of any intentional meanness, but more as an oversight. Yes, Mr Holmes, people have feelings. Stashower's Holmes, though, is outright surly at times.

I have always understood too that the rivalry between Holmes and Lestrade mellowed over time and became a bit more of a working relationship. This adventure was to have been a late-career case for Holmes and yet, Stashower has the level of antagonism between the two at a higher level than I recall even in the earliest ACD adventures.

That being said, this novel just didn't work for me.

2 STARS