The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson [Paperback]

Nicholas Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1995

Located by a computer in the bowels of a major university, this missing manuscript by Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes's biographer and friend, reveals hitherto unknown adventures of the Great Detective—while he was employed, incognito, as a violinist in the Paris Opera.

As the detective matches wits with a musical maniac—the Phantom of the Opera—in a death struggle for the body and soul of Christine Daae, the miraculous soprano for whom the Ghost serves as a mesmeric "Canary Trainer," we are treated to an adventure unlike any other in the Holmes archive.

Nicholas Meyer also "edited" the two-million-copy bestseller The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and The West End Horror, both of which are available in paperback from Norton. Meyer is a novelist, screenwriter, and director as well as a Holmes scholar.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Meyer's third novel based on Sherlock Holmes finds the celebrated sleuth entangled in mysterious events involving the Phantom of the Opera.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Fresh (or stale) from his encounters with Freud (The Seven-Per- Cent Solution, 1974) and Jack the Ripper (The West End Horror, 1976), Sherlock Holmes comes up against the Phantom of the Opera, with mixed results. Disguised as a Norwegian violinist who replaces a performer at the Paris Opera who's been frightened off by the Phantom, Holmes is blackmailed by the woman, Irene Adler, into contracting to protect soprano Christine Daa‚ (who's so innocent that she believes the mysterious singing master who calls himself ``Nobody'' is the Angel of Music) from her ghostly patron. At first the Phantom seems intent on terrorizing everyone but La Daa‚: her replacement as Faust's Marguerite, the oblivious incoming directors, even the new woman who tends the Grand Tier left boxes. No sooner has Holmes guessed at the Phantom's identity, though, than he spirits La Daa‚ off to the cavernous Opera basement for the requisite--and anticlimactic--finale. Should appeal to those fans (and there will be plenty) who can overlook the undistinguished stylistic pastiche--Holmes rather unwisely narrates this lost adventure himself--the footnotes that explain every last Holmesian reference, and the unfortunate poverty of the plot. (First printing of 50,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (March 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393312410
• ISBN-13: 978-0393312416
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Meyer's best., August 1, 2000

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson (Paperback)

But it's not as bad as all that. Nevertheless if you want to read Meyer's Holmes pastiches I'd recommend starting with the other two (_The Seven Per Cent Solution_ and _The West End Horror_). Meyer at his best is splendid.

If you do so, then be sure to ignore the misinformation in the Kirkus Reviews excerpt above. _The West End Horror_ has nothing to do with Jack the Ripper; it concerns a pair of grisly murders that take place in London's theater district. I assume the reviewer is thinking of Edward Hanna's _The Whitechapel Horrors_.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Satisfying Tale for the Holmes Fan., August 12, 2005

By 

Lorraine Talbot (Winsted,, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book, perhaps more so than other reviewers because I've never seen "The Phantom of the Opera" and if I read the book, it's decades ago, so I came to this with an open mind. And I'm reading it because it's a Sherlock Holmes story. I've read and re-read the originals and enjoy the pastiches if they capture the voice or essence of Doyle's work.
I read Meyer's first two Holmes books but missed this one somehow for over a decade. It's as good as the earlier ones, I think. Holmes is telling the story and it sounds like him and what we have of Watson is very Watson-like. Holmes as an orchestra violinist is believable. And what fun it is! What a villanous villain Nobody is. And what an attractive bunch of characters, the innocent Christine, helpful, friendly Ponelle. Holmes is not a man who cultivates friends. Even "that woman" turns up wearing her masculine disguise. And that labyrinth of basements beneath the Opera House. I haven't a clue if the really exist or if they figured in "Phantom", but they made a fine setting for this story.
I recommend that you read it for all these reasons.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A dissenting opinion, September 18, 2003

By 

M. Harris - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson (Paperback)

I've read all three of Nicholas Meyer's Sherlockian pastiches, and oddly enough, this one's my favorite. Yes, it lacks Watson, yes, everyone already knows the story of the Phantom of the Opera, and yes, Meyer stupidly describes a real-life character as dead when he was actually very much alive - but the plot is fast-paced, and Holmes makes a good enough narrator that Watson's absence doesn't hurt as much as it might. Although it has Irene Adler in it, Meyer knows better than to turn the book into a romance. In fact, Holmes' reaction to Adler's presence is nicely ambiguous; while he's clearly attracted/fascinated by "the woman," he just as clearly wishes she'd go away and leave him alone! Get it from the library and see if it appeals to you before you buy it.