Sherlock Holmes' Lost Adventure: The True Story of the Giant Rats of Sumatra [Hardcover]

Lauren Steinhauer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2004

"Raw panic seemed to overcome Holmes' expression. I could only imagine that he suddenly foresaw the inexorable conclusion as vividly as any of his past deductions. We were about to face our own deaths!"

A youthful Sherlock Holmes is recuperating from the ordeal destined to be chronicled by Dr. Watson as A Study in Scarlet. Holmes' next adventure, the lost adventure, starts mundanely enough with the theft of a typewriter but for one outré fact: The death of the beautiful supplicant's manservant. More thefts and purloined documents carry Holmes and Watson across Europe on the Orient Express in search of the truth. A devilishly clever cipher and a murdered sailor lead Holmes to a horrifying conclusion.

Travel with the great detective and Dr. Watson from the steaming jungles of the Sundra Strait to long forgotten caverns beneath London to face a new arch villain, Lofcadio Hearseborne III, and the greatest terror of their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Mystery and death swirl around two beautiful young women who come into the lives of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson of No. 221 B, Baker Street. One mysteriously disappears, the other becomes embroiled in a baffling case of stolen documents, shadowy figures and an esoteric society, the Nine Unknown Men, bent on securing the secrets of Life and Death from naturalist and friend to Sherlock Holmes, Charles Darwin. A crusty sailor dies at the very doorstep of the great detective, a scroll of indecipherable scribbles pinned in his frozen hand. Its arcane message points Holmes and Watson first to the volcano-rimmed shores of Sumatra, then to underground sewers beneath London, lair of Holmes’ new nemesis, Lofcadio Hearseborne III—arch villain, arch racist, bent on the destruction of "undesirables"—and site of Victorian London’s greatest terror.

About the Author

Lauren Steinhauer is a born storyteller, entertaining boyhood friends with interactive adventures. As a young man in Hollywood, he performed magic—a form of storytelling—at the famous Magic Castle. A decade ago, Lauren began SHERLOCK HOLMES' LOST ADVENTURE, the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle leaning over his shoulder. He lives in San Francisco where he is at work on his second novel, HOAX, a contemporary story revolving around the Holocaust.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (May 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595663869
• ISBN-13: 978-0595663866
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,926,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Bother, May 30, 2005

By 

Chad D. Ward (NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sherlock Holmes' Lost Adventure: The True Story of the Giant Rats of Sumatra (Paperback)

As Dorothy Parker once said, "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." This book is crap.

I wanted to like it, I really did. The idea of a Holmes novel featuring the mysterious giant rat of Sumatra, mentioned in passing in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," has great potential. Perhaps someone who can actually write will give it a try. Steinhauer has captured none of the Conan Doyle voice, style or structure. That in itself is not a mortal sin. I would be willing to put up with a certain lack of authenticity if the story were well told. The recent Holmes pastiches by Michael Chabon and Caleb Carr don't exactly capture the Conan Doyle voice, but they're still fun to read. This book is not.

The disappointment begins with a poor setup and stilted dialogue on page one and only deepens as one gets further into the book. I forced myself to read the novel all the way through, hoping against hope that it would get better. It didn't. It's an ill-conceived plot hobbled by poor writing and finally sunk by an ending stolen directly from "The Island of Lost Souls" (aka "Island of Dr. Moreau"). Ick.

Driven by curiosity and disappointment, I wanted to find out who would publish this drivel. As it turns out, no one. The "publisher," iUniverse, is a vanity press paid by the author to print books.

Skip this one. "The Italian Secretary" by Caleb Carr, "A Slight Trick of the Mind" by Mitch Cullin and "The Final Solution" by Michael Chabon are all considerably better examples of good authors having fun with the world's most famous detective.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Waste of Time, January 3, 2006

By 

M. Ulfig - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sherlock Holmes' Lost Adventure: The True Story of the Giant Rats of Sumatra (Paperback)

This book is throughly disgusting. How many times will this story be written? I didn't care for the portral of the characters, or the whole story. I started a few chapters, and skipped through most of the book until the end. There still wasn't anything there to be worth while. The author took too long to write this book, or maybe should have taken longer. I apprecaite reading these reviews. At the time I purchased this book, there weren't many reviews to judge it. The reviews will now save me from wasting money on purchasing certain books, even through I have an extensive Sherlock Holmes collection. I also realize characters die in mysteries, but children?

I agree with one of reviews, this books should be trashed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A first Sherlockian effort, May 21, 2011

By 

Philip K. Jones (St. Clair Shores, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sherlock Holmes' Lost Adventure: The True Story of the Giant Rats of Sumatra (Hardcover)

This book is the first Sherlockian publication I know of by the author. It tells the story of Sherlock Holmes and the giant rats of Sumatra

This story includes four threads; typewriters are being stolen in London, there have been a series of documents taken from the files of Charles Darwin, children are disappearing in the dock areas of London and the test results of an obscure Austrian abbot, Gregor Mendel, have disappeared. The events that lead to Holmes' involvement in each of these separate lines area bit complex, even contrived, but they do help move the story forward.

Watson falls in love. Holmes and Watson take a short vacation to the Continent, which is cut off suddenly. They visit Charles Darwin at his request and then they head out for an area near Sumatra by way of the Andaman Islands..

Eventually, they return to London and confront the evil-doer responsible for most of the events. The resolution of the entire situation is complicated and a bit obscure. Several lines are not quite resolved but I do really admire the foremother of a truly great bad girl who turns up in the mix.

In summary, the story is interesting and moves right a long. There are holes in the logic and some of the events are difficult to justify. The editing is well done, with few errors in usage or spelling. I question several of the basic assumptions, but that is a personal thing. The plot holds together, even if it is a bit precarious and the historical characters are very well presented.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, May, 2011