Customer Reviews

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

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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

Lauren Steinhauer is a artist and storyteller. He has written poetry and short stories, and these are all hobbies. Lauren has worked at Universal Studio with Albert Whitlock, Alfred Hitchcock's special effects man. He also performed at the Magic Castle as a professional magician. He designed movie posters for Hollywood studios and has experience in art campaigns and advertising. He worked in San Francisco in computer graphics and has spent time teaching computer workshops. He has published books for the DUMMIES series in Director skills. He spent ten years writing SHERLOCK HOLMES LOST ADVENTURE.

Using a near perfect imitation of Arthur Conan Doyle, Lauren Steinhauer resurrects Sherlock Holmes for an adventure that expands on hints of an adventure alluded to by Doyle in THE SUSSEX VAMPIRE. This story follows A STUDY IN SCARLET, as Holmes is recuperating from his most recent adventure. Sherlock has several clients: one a missing little girl, and two others which both speak of a stolen typewriter. Lucy Gates, a radiant and fragile beauty, graces Sherlock's parlor and totally mesmerizes poor Watkins. Holmes suddenly decides upon a holiday, and at every step something bizarre happens and dark figures materialize out of nowhere:

"I bolted over a crag just in time to see Holmes slap his hand on the figure's shoulder, only to be violently shaken off as the villain swiped Holmes with the purloined satchel, then threw it at him in the heat of defeat. Suddenly the brute disappeared with a horrific scream. What I finally reunited with Holmes, I saw that our mysterious foe had stumbled into the entrance of a deep, vertical shaft and was hanging by the bleeding finger-tips of one hand to crumbling limestone, his right hand outstretched to meet Holmes' offer of aid."

Steinhauer has been a careful student of the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle, and he produces a veritable masterpiece complete with fiends, maniacal scientists, damsels in distress, travel to dangerous places replete with snakes, volcanoes, mosquitos, and nightmarish freaks. The cadence of his writing is so like Doyle that it is uncanny. This is an absolutely wonderful work!

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer