Customer Reviews

Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1: The Trial of Sherlock Holmes

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Plot Summary: First a factory is bombed, and then a man's life is threatened. Scotland Yard and Sherlock Holmes both sit in the intended victim's house on the evening of his supposed murder, and most shocking of all, Holmes himself is accused of the murder when it takes place. He is put in jail, and his friends, Watson and Lestrade, are prevented from looking into the case. In this novel twist, Holmes is put on trial, and his detective skills are all that stand between him and the hangman's noose.

I am a serious Sherlock Holmes fan, so my husband had me in mind when he picked this up at the bookstore. Well, that's what he said anyway, and I think he was hoping to soften the blow when I found out how much this cost ($25). I would never have spent that much myself - since I'm a chronic cheapskate - but since we had the book I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to read it.

Sherlock Holmes, Vol 1: The Trial of Sherlock Holmes is the kind of graphic novel that spoils me for the cruder, black and white types, because everything about this is first class. Every single illustration is beautifully drawn and colored, the binding and paper is of good quality, and it's highly collectable. It's a gorgeous piece of work. The bonus materials are the end were comprehensive, and include a panel-by-panel discussion, essays on Sherlock Holmes, and one of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories.

With regards to the story, I think the authors, Leah Moore, John Reppion, and Aaron Campbell, made two smart decisions. One, they stuck to the Watson and Holmes that legions of fans know and love. Holmes was a little cold, and lacking that occasional sparkle that comes across in the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, but at least they didn't try to spin him into something he was not. Watson was particularly well done, and he had the right mix of solicitous care and genuine emotion. Lots of familiar faces pop up, including Lestrade and Sherlock's brother, Mycroft.

The second smart move was to craft a completely unique story. Instead of adapting a mystery that most fans would have already read, they gave us something new, and since it's no easy thing to craft a mystery worthy of Holmes, I applaud their effort. The mystery wasn't jaw-dropping, but I followed it along happily to the end. I think the only flaw is that Holmes is necessarily absent for good chunks of the story, but the authors make a good case for why this was needed within the bonus materials.

The brand new release of any Sherlock Holmes mystery in any format is something to be applauded by fiction fans everywhere, and this trade hardcover is no exception. The character is arguably a more constricted and less implausible precursor to Batman, therefore fitting the comic medium like a glove, with the recent graphic novelization of The Hound of the Baskervilles greatly illustrating this point. Reading how this legendary sleuth solves mysteries in his unique and inimitable fashion is a reading pleasure and undoubtedly the center attraction, so how ironic that this story's critical flaw, the reduced role of the main man himself and what he does best, is curiously rationalized at the end of the book by an author's rather enlightening entry, stating the perceived predicament of writing a compelling 110 page Holmes tale due to his prodigious yet apparently problematic detective skills. The point is certainly debatable. Whatever strengths and weaknesses any character may have comes with the territory and needs to be worked around, if not enhanced, by the creators. After all, that is what they do, craft intriguing stories featuring remarkably exceptional individuals. Because of this, the story does wander a bit in the middle, while also not sufficiently allowing the reader the opportunity to play detective themselves by placing adequate clues to solve the mystery, whose final resolution was alas abrupt and somewhat anticlimactic. Despite its' shortcomings, it is still a much welcomed and enjoyable read while hopefully being a harbinger of a bright and extensive future in the comics medium for this renowned icon.

This was a great Sherlock Holmes story! I would have liked to see more of Sherlock in the series, but his absence in places did increase the mystery. I hope there is another volume.

Sherlock Holmes' England is under attack as anarchists fire bomb a factory in London. When former Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, Sir Samuel Henry, gravely ill in his bed, received a bizarre, threatening letter from the anarchists claiming responsibility for the bombing and suggesting that they would murder him in his bed at precisely 7:00 p.m. the next day, the current Commissioner acted swiftly. A number of officers were posted throughout Henry's home as guards and, at Sir Henry's request, Sherlock Holmes and Watson attended personally as well. At 6:50 p.m. precisely, Holmes entered Henry's bedroom to personally ensure the ill man's safety. At 7:00 p.m., a shot rang out and officers barging into Henry's bedroom were shocked to discover a stunned Holmes, smoking revolver in hand, standing over the murdered and quite dead Murphy. Holmes, to the incredulous dismay of Watson and their long-time professional colleague, Inspector Lestrade, is charged with first degree capital murder and faces execution.

Leah Moore's and John Reppion's brilliant locked room mystery, complemented by Aaron Campbell's superb, deeply atmospheric artistic renderings, is a welcome and honourable addition to the very crowded universe of post Conan Doyle Sherlockian mysteries. The story line, while completely true to the Victorian sensibilities that the world has reasonably come to expect out of the best quality Holmes mysteries, has a very fresh and unique modern flavour that involves some very Machiavellian international espionage. No satire, no parody, no pastiche and certainly no mere adaptation, this is a very original story that will thrill long time Holmes readers. I'm also certain that fans of graphic novels reading this and encountering Sherlock Holmes for the first time will dashing to the book store seeking out Conan Doyle's original mysteries as well.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

As part of the legion of Sherlock Holmes fans, and in need of some lighter fare, I picked up _The Trial of Sherlock Holmes_. I was delighted with the story and with the artwork. The story itself is a "closed door murder." A bomb has been detonated in the east-end, with further threats of violence, including a death-threat to the German-born godson of the Prince Consort. To help solve the case, Holmes is summoned to the home of the assistant police commissioner. Alone in the room with the Commissioner, a shot rings out. Police, guarding the commisioner, burst in to find Holmes holding a smoking gun and the Commissioner shot dead. Holmes is incarcerated, so it largely falls to Watson to clear Holme's name and find the mysterious bomber.

While a new story (written by Leah Moore and John Reppion, not Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), it is very much in the spirt of the original: Holmes is clinical and distant, Watson remains the primary narrator and "softens" the story line with his humanism, and Mycroft Holmes makes a brief (and interesting) appearance. The mystery is resolved with typical flair: the clues were apparent all along, readers only needed to pay meticulous attention to detail in order to figure it out. The story is a graphic novel, which can be hit-and-miss. In this case, the illustrator (Aaron Campbell) does a fantastic job: the casting of shadow lends a sinsister air (and is somewhat reminiscent of the classic films The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection), and the detail in the panels is remarkable.