Customer Reviews

Enter the Lion: A Posthumous Memoir of Mycroft Holmes

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is as unique an effort to capture the essence of the Mycroft Holmes character as I have ever been fortunate enough to enjoy. Second probably only to Quinn Fawcett's more recent work on the "Brotherhood" series, this 1979 novel by Michael Hodel and Sean Wright really brings the Mycroft Holmes character alive.

The authors explain how they stumble across the hidden manuscript in an antique store, and then present the work for the reader. I believe this book pre-dates or is a contemporary of the work of Nicholas Meyer, who used a similar device in his books ("Seven Percent Solution", etc.), to explain how he came across new Sherlock stories. Hodel and Wright go a step further, and offer insightful footnotes throughout which help to illuminate past and future items in the Canon, as well as historical perspective.

In the manuscript (reportedly written in the clear, concise hand of Mycroft himself), a young Mycroft relates an adventure involving a political plot to embroil England in a second American Civil War. Murder and intrigue are the order of the day, and our hapless Foreign Office assistant is right in the middle! The pace rarely slows, and Sherlock is on hand to assist as he begins laying the groundwork to become the world's first consulting detective.

One of the interesting things about the story is that authors Hodel and Wright eschew the usual Dr. Watson stand-in, and allow the Mycroft character to relate the events in first-person. The result is a Sherlock story with a completely different and refreshing perspective. This is especially important as we gain an understanding of the Holmes/Moriarty feud.

The real mystery is why the book is not more well-known to followers of Mycroftia (let alone Sherlockia), and why there were no further Mycroft tales from these authors.

The plot is too farfetched to make the story work. A group of southerners plan to get enough low ranking ministers on their side to join them in reclaiming not only the south but the entire United States for the Confederacy, which will then rejoin Britain as an semi-independent country. Of course Mycroft Holmes learns of the plot and works with his brother to stop it, along with a mercenary former slave and other unlikely helpers.

There's too much of the elder Holmes in this one, running around and almost falling in love. The Great Detective is reduced to a bit part and comes off rather dull when described by his brother rather than Watson. There are a few showy deductions, but with no Watson to impress there's little point in them.

One huge mistake cannot be overlooked either. On being abducted Mycroft deduces he's being driven over Tower Bridge, quite a trick for a book set in 1875 since Tower Bridge was opened in 1894! One could overlook a mistake like that in a story supposedly written by Watson, he's always hazy with facts, but Mycroft is supposed to be a genius and would know when things were built.

I'm giving it three stars anyway since Sherlock Holmes at least remains more or less true to his origins for a change.