Sherlock Holmes and the Seven Deadly Sins Murders

Rating:
Summary: Slipperly slopes, Watson!
Review: This is the fifth pastiche I have seen by Barry Day, and it has the merits and defects of the previous four. Good points: without slavishly imitating the Doylean style, and also without the direct quotations that lesser writers tend to lean upon, he still manages to get the Holmes/Watson dialogue in a more than acceptable facsimile of the originals.

Bad points: Here we have two plots that really have nothing to do with one another. A maniac is methodically killing one by one the seven members of a long-forgotten collegiate club. But wait, there's more: the high priestess of a mystical Cobra Cult in an Asian never-never land is on the track of a long-lost sacred book, which is believed to be in the possession of one unknown member of the club. The identity of the maniac is obvious both to the reader and to Holmes about 1/4 of the way through the book, but he is inexplicably allowed to run around loose for the remainder of the book until enough pages have been chalked up that it is ok to have him killed off. (By the way, about half way through the book he is shot and wounded by Watson, but nothing is ever made of this, and the next time he shows up he seems to be in fine fettle.) As for the Cobra Cult, it never really has anything whatsoever to do with anything that transpires, except in providing the lovely high priestess for Watson to describe repeatedly, and admire--- recovery of the sacred book turns out to be a non-issue.

The killer has no real motive for his murders (he is said to be "insane" every once in a while as if this explains everything) other than perhaps festering envy of his more successful fellow-students (who include Mycroft). Holmes has no real excuse for letting the villain run around loose, other than to fill out 187 pages and get us to novel, as opposed to short story, length. You may find it difficult, as well, to find an excuse to read this particular pastiche. If you have read previous Day pastiches, you'll pretty much know what to expect. I got through it, but without noticable enthusiasm.

Rating:
Summary: Slipperly slopes, Watson!
Review: This is the fifth pastiche I have seen by Barry Day, and it has the merits and defects of the previous four. Good points: without slavishly imitating the Doylean style, and also without the direct quotations that lesser writers tend to lean upon, he still manages to get the Holmes/Watson dialogue in a more than acceptable facsimile of the originals.

Bad points: Here we have two plots that really have nothing to do with one another. A maniac is methodically killing one by one the seven members of a long-forgotten collegiate club. But wait, there's more: the high priestess of a mystical Cobra Cult in an Asian never-never land is on the track of a long-lost sacred book, which is believed to be in the possession of one unknown member of the club. The identity of the maniac is obvious both to the reader and to Holmes about 1/4 of the way through the book, but he is inexplicably allowed to run around loose for the remainder of the book until enough pages have been chalked up that it is ok to have him killed off. (By the way, about half way through the book he is shot and wounded by Watson, but nothing is ever made of this, and the next time he shows up he seems to be in fine fettle.) As for the Cobra Cult, it never really has anything whatsoever to do with anything that transpires, except in providing the lovely high priestess for Watson to describe repeatedly, and admire--- recovery of the sacred book turns out to be a non-issue.

The killer has no real motive for his murders (he is said to be "insane" every once in a while as if this explains everything) other than perhaps festering envy of his more successful fellow-students (who include Mycroft). Holmes has no real excuse for letting the villain run around loose, other than to fill out 187 pages and get us to novel, as opposed to short story, length. You may find it difficult, as well, to find an excuse to read this particular pastiche. If you have read previous Day pastiches, you'll pretty much know what to expect. I got through it, but without noticable enthusiasm.