Customer Reviews

A Sherlockian Quartet

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What we have here are three short stories and a previously published novel, THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA, from 1975.
There are a surprising number of grammatical and punctuation errors, considering Boyer is a regularly-published novelist. There are also a large number of misprints, but not an overwhelming number.

But about the contents. The first story, "Zolnay the Aerialist," is by far the worst--- if you know anything about Victorian England you will have figured out the plot in the first few pages, and then as you read you will hope against hope that that isn't really going to be the plot... but, alas, it is. That the author himself is aware of something wrong here is indicated by his frantic waving to friends in the audience.

Things get much better with "Bell Rock Light," concerning a murder on a Stevenson Lighthouse--- fascinating detail, and given the
lighthouse, any student of the Canon will be looking for the P and the TC, and they arrive in due course.

Also good is "Eyrie Cliff," in which Holmes and Watson uncover a bevy of German Secret Agents, who plan to do away with a young genius of antisubmarine tactics. There are a number of nice twists here to divert the reader's attention.

Finally we have a reprint of GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA. It has been so long since I read this (25 years!) that I had forgotten everything except the identity of the villain. Reading it again, I find many too many echoes of HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (and why don't Watson and the villain therefore recognize Holmes' ploy instantly?) but otherwise a pretty good outing for the two old friends, and more than a touch of genuine, effective terror.

All in all, this is worthy of your attention and your money, if you can't get enough of the gaslit fogs of Baker Street and the doings of its immortal residents.

Most Sherlockian pastiches fall far short of the stores written by Conan Doyle, but Rick Boyer has produced some wonderfully entertaining stories in this compilation. We find the Sherlock Holmes and James H. Watson of the Canon, not some pale shadows of those characters. Boyer's style is rich and keeps the reader's interest from first to last. I highly recommend this book to all fans of The Great Detective!

Richard Boyer has been writing mysteries for some years now, but Sherlockians/Holmesians will probably know him best as the author of _The Giant Rat of Sumatra_, a pastiche published in 1976 and long out of print. (I have a very well-worn paperback copy.)

Well, _Rat_ is back in print as of the present volume; it's one of the four stories that make up the "quartet" of the title. The others were added when a publisher approached Boyer about republishing _Rat_ and learned that he'd written three more Holmes stories.

The volume doesn't even pretend to be written by Watson; in fact a rather silly preface allegedly written by Watson's great-grandson ascribes the tales to Boyer, taking the line that Holmes was fictional although Watson was not. (The preface also casts Sir Arthur in an unkind light; I believe it was written by the book's publisher.) So when I write, as I do here, of Boyer as the author, I won't be undermining any of the usual illusions.

I don't think Boyer quite has the style down; he omits too many commas, he overuses italics and the ellipsis, and in his attempt to capture Watson's Victorian/Edwardian style he occasionally takes some quaint grammatical directions. (For example, at one point Watson says he "was smote," rather than "smitten," by a strong wind. Again, Holmes refers at one point to two earlier cases, "the latter from which we scarcely escaped with our lives and reason." Of course it should be "from the latter of which.") I say these things not merely because I am picayune -- although I am -- but because these little grammatical nuances are important in recreating the atmosphere and tone of the canonical tales.

But Boyer can plot. And for _that_, we can forgive him a great many minor lapses.

The highlight of the collection, undoubtedly, is _Rat_ itself. I won't summarize it here, since anyone who hasn't read it won't want me to spoil it and anyone who _has_ read it will simply want to know that it's included in this book.

But the other three cases are pretty good too. Oh, the first two telegraph their solutions so completely that it would be impossible to miss them. The first -- the case of Zolnay the Aerialist -- gives itself away (in principle) fairly early on to pretty much any reader; as for the second -- the case of Bell Rock Light -- all Sherlockians/Holmesians, the moment they learn that it's set in a lighthouse, will recognize (although Boyer never mentions it) the unrecorded case on which the story is based and start watching for the (oops, can't say it) and his (oops, can't say that either). (Especially when they read the note left by the dead man.) But the details of the narrative more than make up for it; the stories are enjoyable all the same. "Bell Rock Light," in particular, is notable for its fine (and surprisingly fascinating) description of lighthouse operation.

The third piece -- the case of the Eyrie Cliff -- brings Holmes out of retirement during the First World War and reunites the sterling pair with Holmes's brother Mycroft. Among other things, we get to see a leather-clad Holmes whizzing along on a motorcycle with Watson in the sidecar.

What will probably be of most interest to most readers, though, will be _Rat_ itself. So, if you're wondering whether it will ever be reprinted, wonder no more; here it is.

Most of us who have purchased this book have probably read the origional stories many times over. Enjoying the origionals, I have purchased later "Sherlockian" releases that now number over twenty books - each filled with authors attempting to mimic the writing style of the origionals - some with more success than others.

I think these four stories were some of the best I have read. The author has the "voice" of Watson perfected well, and the plots were very interesting. Unlike a number of recent attempts, I found this book extremely hard to put down! Each story is a little better than the one that proceeds it. All are very good!

I would love to see the author release Quartet book number two. I would gladly pay for an advance copy !

"Ah ... Watson. You and I both know there is no rest like enjoyable work." Thus speaks the great private consulting detective Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Bell Rock Light," arguably the most Holmesian of the four pastiches in American Rick Boyer's A SHERLOCKIAN QUARTET (1999). Dr. John Hamish Watson had suggested that the two friends holiday in Scotland. "Capital idea Watson! I've a friend named Clive Wallace who lives in Arbroath on the Firth of Tay. ... (He has) a lovely sea cliff cottage, (Part One).

The pair soon learns of a mysterious death in the tower of famous Bell Rock lighthouse. It might have been natural ... or suicide ... or murder. It takes all of Holmes's immense logical power to decide which. Before he died, lighthouse keeper Ross had scribbled "KILLED BY CORM." Since of the only other two men on duty that night in a lighthouse miles out in the Firth of Tay, one was named Cormack, the latter had been arrested.

But wait!

Hanging on the walls of Edwards, a former British Deputy Ambassador in China, there was a Chinese tapestry whose scene would allow Holmes no rest, "... depicting a river scene in China. ... Sea birds and ducks swam abut the boats" (Part Three). Before tale's end we readers have ample clues to solve the mystery for ourselves. Watson might have preferred to spend his time in the Highlands hunting, fishing, hiking and smoking his pipe. As for Holmes, he was in heaven : "Ah ... Watson. You and I both know there is no rest like enjoyable work.

Like "Bell Rock Light," the other three tales of A SHERLOCKIAN QUARTET are masterly and convincing imitations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original Holmes and Watson.

None is as brilliantly original as THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (serialized 1901 - 1902). But the full length novel of 1976 by Rick Boyer herein reissued takes up BASKERVILLES where Doyle left off. Its villain, dog abusing and dog warping Jack Stapleton, survived his disappearance in a Dartmoor bog filled with passion to avenge himself on the detective who had thwarted him. By 1894 Stapleton was ready to return from the Far East, with another gentle beast in tow, a huge, plant eating Sumatran tapir, that Stapleton had tortured into madness and carnivoric proclivities -- THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA. On the borderlands of Wales, Stapleton sets a trap to kill Holmes and take vengeance on a great English Lord and Minister who had once wronged the madman.

Also quite good is a tale set in Britain hard pressed by the Kaiser in the spring of 1917, "The Adventure of the Eyrie Cliff." Here now verging on old age, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson and Sherlock's older brother Mycroft battle British traitors and Imperial Germany's greatest U-Boot Captain to thwart Germany's renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare against neutral merchant vessels. That policy brings America into the war as an Associated Power on the side of the Allies.

Thoroughly forgettable, by contrast, (as I might add are the bottom ten percent of Doyle's Sherlock tales) is the short, lightweight "The Adventure of Zolnay the Aerialist." Holmes and Watson tackle the suspicious death of a beautiful trapeze artist whose last words seem to implicate historically real John Merrick, the hideously deformed Elephant Man.

Novelist Rick Boyer (author of the nine DOC ADAMS thrillers based in and around Cape Cod, Massachusetts) is a gifted story teller. He also knows and loves coastlines, cliffs, tides, winds and storms at sea. Give him a chance to work his magic on you!

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