Customer Reviews

The Revenge of the Hound (Sherlock Holmes Mystery)

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

 

 

As with all non Doyle books about Holmes I am always hesitant to buy one for fear that it will not come close to the original but I am glad that I bought this book. Mr. Hardwick does a great job with his writing style in that you forget that you are reading a Holmes book authored by someone other than Mr. Doyle. Finished it in two days as it was that good.

My dad is a great Holmes fan. . . I was hesitant to buy a non-Doyle sequel to Hound, but he did not put it down! He pronounced it "a great read!" Please write more! !

This is a pretty good book and the author does a great job of evoking Arthur Canon Doyle's legendary characters but the title is a misnomer. For any reader expecting a return to the Scottish moors and the House of Baskervilles, they will be sorely disappointed. The hound in question is really just a minor subplot that felt hobbled on. It's as though the publisher came up with the title for sales purposes and the author complied by tacking on a side trip concerning a rabid hound but it covers less than maybe twenty pages if that.

Most people remember when they first discovered Sherlock Holmes. Whether their first entry into the world of 221 Baker Street was by reading on of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories or seeing one of the old Basil Rathbone films, or a modern TV adaptation at some point most begin to delve into the original stories by Doyle, eagerly turning the pages until the awful realization that there is a limited number of stories, that there will be no new stories from Conan Doyle himself. No matter how carefully they are rationed out at some point a fan will reach that dreadful last page of the last story. What to do?

Into this void a few brave writers have over the years attempted to pick up where Doyle left off. In THE REVENGE OF THE HOUND Michael Hardwick has joined this group. As the story opens Watson has determined to attempt matrimony one more time (his third) and Holmes begun to contemplate retirement. Soon both their plans are put on hold when a mysterious hound has begun to plague the countryside. Fresh upon his recent triumph over the Hound of the Baskervilles Holmes is called in to deal with this latest menance. The game is soon afoot taking Watson and Holmes to the continent solving various other puzzles along the way including a murder on the English Channel and the disappearance of Oliver Cromwell's skeleton.

This is definitely not a place to begin reading about Sherlock Holmes. By all means read all of Conan Doyle's works first but when that dreaded last page has been turned this is a good way to fill the void. The story does tend to drag a bit in places, and also covers a bewildering amount of material but for a true fan it is a welcome chance to return to the familiar Baker Street address.

Its title notwithstanding this is not really a sequel to The Hound of the Baskervilles ,and those requiring such an item are directed to the Rick Boyer novel The Giant Rat of Sumatra .
It is -like other novels from Hardwick in his revivals of the figure -a well crafted and enjoyable novel in its own right with solid research and well rounded plots that stand comparison with the Doyle novels ,other ironically than The Hound of the Bskervilles itself ,by far the best full length Sherlock Holmes novel written by Doyle
The period is early 1901 and England is awaiting the once postponed coronation of Queen Victoria;s son the future Edward VII.(The future monarch makes a cameo appearance in the book )
Holmes investigates a series of what appear to be unrelated crimes but which turn out to be linked to a conspiracy to unseat the monarchy by a campaign of terrorist violence mounted by anarchist groups .There is the death of a Chinese steward on a cross -Channel ferry ; the theft of Oliver Cromwell's remains from beneath Marble Arch ,and a blackmail threat to the soon to be King which centres around one of his many romantic and sexual assignatiuons with society ladies .In the bacjground are rumours of the re-appearance of the fabled Hound which is reputedly on the loose on Hampstead Heath where it has attacked a vagrant .
The historical background while sketched quickly is spot on .It shows an England in transition from the certainties of the Victorian era to an altogether less assured future under a new and flambouyant monarch .Foreign anarchists are rife in the city and the country is beginning to entertain doubts about its place in the world having performed badly in the Boer War in Africa and social unrest is in the air .There is a telling statistic -drawn from historical record -of how many potential army recruits were rejected on medical grounds ,the result of malnourishment rooted in grinding poverty.
Add to this Holmes persistent threats of retirement and Watson's remarriage to a young and vibrant American ,and the sense of an era coming to a close is palpable
It is however more than anything a rattling good period crime yarn with a splendidly melodramatic climax in the vaults at Highgate Cemetery
Hardwick wroye novelizations of the Upstairs , Downstairs TV series and was expert in the era as well as a commendable crime novelist .It all combines to make this a solid entry in the best post Doyle Holmes series apart from the Laurie R King series

Recommended

I'm at something of a loss to know why this is so highly regearded in Sherlockian circles. The writing is padded and pedestrian with none of the verve or conciseness of Conan Doyle. Maybe Hardwick would do well at some Holmes short stories but he certainly can't maintain the novel length.

There's little of the 'smoke and mirrors' deduction that we readers love so well with Holmes (the 'I perceive you have been in Afghanistan' type of dazzle) , except an opening salvo that's is a direct lift from a Conan Doyle original. Holmes seems lacklustre and is offscreen too much. That's true of some of the original Holmes novels but it's also one of the complaints about the novels that many readers have. If you're going to go to the trouble and effort of doing a Holmes pastiche then surely you put the Master front and center.

There's also too much description of place and scene that slows the narrative. Watson seems to ramble excessively about himself and his new bride-to-be rather than chronicle Holmes' investigation. And the case itself is not very interesting.

For Holmes lovers who want more there are much better collections of pastiche short stories and some much better novels (try Loren Estleman's Dracula and Jeckyll/Hyde novels, they're great).

This is an homage by a writer who clearly loves this material but simply doesn't have the talent to match his enthusiasm.

a semi-sequel to sherlock holmes' hound of the baskervilles. cool@@