Revenge From the Grave is the latest Sherlock Holmes novel from David Stuart Davies. Sherlock Holmes has not been back in London after his self-imposed exile where the world thought he had died locked in hand to hand combat with Professor James Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. In 1894, Holmes is troubled to find mysterious notes and corpses turning up at his doorstep. Moriarty seems to be taunting him, prompting the great detective to put on one of his most important disguises to infiltrate a criminal organization that seems to be rising from the ashes after its leader was presumed dead. Holmes and Watson need determine whether they have a new enemy or an old one has done the impossible and survived a fall that would have finished anyone else.
This was nearly impossible to imagine that Arthur Conan Doyle would have written anything like this. Davies seems determined to indulge his fanboy tendencies in this one. He keeps changing perspectives throughout. I felt there was something almost juvenile about the way the plot is presented. The identity of the new leader was not all that clever or surprising. The characters seemed rather flat and uninteresting. Davies just delivers what appears to be a shell of Doyle’s creations.
These pastiche works are always a bit of a gamble, but Davies seems to have missed the mark worse than usual with this effort.
What will I be reading next? Good question! I have decided to return to an author I have just started sampling recently. Brad Thor sends Scot Harvath on another mission in Spymaster.
Reviews, Musings, and Other Things... 