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The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man From Hell by Barrie Roberts (view source)
Revision as of 15:05, 16 April 2010
, 15:05, 16 April 2010Created page with '{{infobox |title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man From Hell |sort= Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man From Hell |author=Barrie Roberts |reviewer=Rob…'
{{infobox
|title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man From Hell
|sort= Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man From Hell
|author=Barrie Roberts
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Crime
|summary=This superbly written Sherlock Holmes novel is by far the best
written of Conan Doyle's numerous imitators.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=February 2008
|paperback=1848565089
|pages=192
|publisher=Titan Books Ltd
|date=February 2010
|isbn=978-1848565081
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848565089</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1848565089</amazonus>
}}
Noted West Country philanthropist Lord Backwater is
killed – by poachers, according to the police investigating. His son
disagrees, and calls in Sherlock Holmes, who quickly establishes that
the true solution to the mystery is much stranger – involving a feared
criminal brotherhood, crimes from many years past, and the Gates of
Hell themselves.
I should probably point out that the Gates of Hell, and the man
styling himself as the Man From Hell, aren't actually supernatural –
but that's not to downplay the danger that Holmes, his faithful
companion Watson, and the new Lord Backwater face. The action builds
to a thrilling climax as the great detective uses his powers of
deduction to work out the secrets of the victim's past.
This is fairly standard for a Sherlock Holmes story, in many ways. The
West Country setting and the death of a member of the aristocracy,
followed by his heir hiring Holmes, is strongly reminiscent of ''Hound
of the Baskervilles'' – and let's face it, when it comes to detective
stories, the ''Hound'' is hardly a bad one to take inspiration from.
It's the emulation that's really impressive here – I've read all of
Conan Doyle's Holmes novels and short stories, and many of the other
books to have been written using Sherlock as a character, in addition
to some internet fanfic. While I've enjoyed many of the books written
by later authors, I'd never previously read anyone whose style was
particularly close to the original. Barrie Roberts, in this book, has
an incredibly similar style to Conan Doyle himself, both in his voice
writing as Watson and in the overall plot construction, from the
obligatory scene early on when Holmes dazzles Backwater with his
deductions about the heir, to the action climax which is so
reminiscent of some of the short stories.
The mystery has twists and turns, but is probably one of the easier
Sherlock Holmes stories to 'solve'. I could guess reasonable amounts
of what was happening as we went along, and while I can't hand on
heart say that I guessed the murderer too far in advance, the
character in question was certainly on my suspects list. That's not a
criticism, though – as much as I like the ingenious plots of some
detective novels with seven or eight twists and turns at the end, I
also enjoy feeling intelligent when I work out at least some of what's
happening, and Roberts definitely 'plays fair' with the reader, giving
them enough information to make a good stab at a solution.
Of all the Sherlock Holmes stories out there written by authors other
than Conan Doyle, this is definitely the one I'd be happiest to
recommend to fans of the originals. For those people who've never read
a Holmes book (is there anyone still out there in that category?),
this works well enough as a detective novel anyway, and will hopefully
inspire people to search out Sir Arthur's books.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
Further Reading: For other Holmes reading, [[Eliminate the Impossible:
An Examination of the World of Sherlock Holmes on Page and Screen by
Alistair Duncan and Steve Emecz]] is an excellent non-fiction book. For
more crime fiction, I'd highly recommend [[The Brutal Art by Jesse
Kellerman]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1848565089}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=7094881}}
{{commenthead}}
|title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man From Hell
|sort= Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man From Hell
|author=Barrie Roberts
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Crime
|summary=This superbly written Sherlock Holmes novel is by far the best
written of Conan Doyle's numerous imitators.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=February 2008
|paperback=1848565089
|pages=192
|publisher=Titan Books Ltd
|date=February 2010
|isbn=978-1848565081
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848565089</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1848565089</amazonus>
}}
Noted West Country philanthropist Lord Backwater is
killed – by poachers, according to the police investigating. His son
disagrees, and calls in Sherlock Holmes, who quickly establishes that
the true solution to the mystery is much stranger – involving a feared
criminal brotherhood, crimes from many years past, and the Gates of
Hell themselves.
I should probably point out that the Gates of Hell, and the man
styling himself as the Man From Hell, aren't actually supernatural –
but that's not to downplay the danger that Holmes, his faithful
companion Watson, and the new Lord Backwater face. The action builds
to a thrilling climax as the great detective uses his powers of
deduction to work out the secrets of the victim's past.
This is fairly standard for a Sherlock Holmes story, in many ways. The
West Country setting and the death of a member of the aristocracy,
followed by his heir hiring Holmes, is strongly reminiscent of ''Hound
of the Baskervilles'' – and let's face it, when it comes to detective
stories, the ''Hound'' is hardly a bad one to take inspiration from.
It's the emulation that's really impressive here – I've read all of
Conan Doyle's Holmes novels and short stories, and many of the other
books to have been written using Sherlock as a character, in addition
to some internet fanfic. While I've enjoyed many of the books written
by later authors, I'd never previously read anyone whose style was
particularly close to the original. Barrie Roberts, in this book, has
an incredibly similar style to Conan Doyle himself, both in his voice
writing as Watson and in the overall plot construction, from the
obligatory scene early on when Holmes dazzles Backwater with his
deductions about the heir, to the action climax which is so
reminiscent of some of the short stories.
The mystery has twists and turns, but is probably one of the easier
Sherlock Holmes stories to 'solve'. I could guess reasonable amounts
of what was happening as we went along, and while I can't hand on
heart say that I guessed the murderer too far in advance, the
character in question was certainly on my suspects list. That's not a
criticism, though – as much as I like the ingenious plots of some
detective novels with seven or eight twists and turns at the end, I
also enjoy feeling intelligent when I work out at least some of what's
happening, and Roberts definitely 'plays fair' with the reader, giving
them enough information to make a good stab at a solution.
Of all the Sherlock Holmes stories out there written by authors other
than Conan Doyle, this is definitely the one I'd be happiest to
recommend to fans of the originals. For those people who've never read
a Holmes book (is there anyone still out there in that category?),
this works well enough as a detective novel anyway, and will hopefully
inspire people to search out Sir Arthur's books.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
Further Reading: For other Holmes reading, [[Eliminate the Impossible:
An Examination of the World of Sherlock Holmes on Page and Screen by
Alistair Duncan and Steve Emecz]] is an excellent non-fiction book. For
more crime fiction, I'd highly recommend [[The Brutal Art by Jesse
Kellerman]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1848565089}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=7094881}}
{{commenthead}}