Basically, there is no horse sense to this novel; it’s main function is to please the reader and it does...big time. We all know that Professor Moriarty was created to eventually kill off Sherlock and end the series. But does he ever do it. It seems Conan Doyle wants to but doesn’t have the guts to pull the trigger. Is there any real proof that Sherlock dies? I don’t think so. Dan Simmons writes this novel under the assumption that the great Sherlock Holmes lives and, in fact, arrives in Washington, D.C. to solve a possible murder not knowing whether he is real or a fictional character. Henry James, who seemingly follows Holmes to America without any thought pattern, has trepidations that he is a failed writer (thus his attempted suicide). But, he is easily maneuvered into making the trip back to America. Why Sherlock doubts himself as a real person is puzzling since throughout the novel he demonstrates his brilliant mind and stealth. When they arrive in America, Sherlock briefly goes into disguise as Norwegian explorer Jan Sigerson. Sherlock’s client is the brother of the supposedly murdered Clover Adams but soon finds out that his client has taken his own life. As a matter of fact, everyone in the novel also thinks that Clover committed suicide by drinking her photography chemicals (yucky!). Since Clover Adams’ husband Henry is away in Europe, Sherlock and Henry James stay at John (an American historian) and Clara Hay’s mansion. The Hays are neighbors of Henry Adams (an American statesman) and are also friends of Henry James. Got it so far? As soon as Sherlock unpacks, he heads into D.C. to buy cocaine and morphine. In the 1800s England, it seems like everyone was a drug addict (drinking laudanum, a liquid opium) or had gout or consumption. Anyway, he buys his drugs from some toughs and they make the mistake of trying to roll Sherlock. Ha, this part was funny.
On page 47 (you thought that I was giving up too much of the story, didn’t you?...there are 570 pages still to go) we find out about the Five of Hearts, a salon of five people: Henry and Clover Adams, John and Clara Hay and Clarence King (a famous geologist). Did the group’s elitism cause them to acquire enemies? Maybe. Sherlock suspects Clover’s recent friendship with Rebecca Lorne and Clifton Richards is dubious. Are they really anarchists? Is Clifton Richards a deadly assassin who almost killed Sherlock years ago? Is Rebecca really Clifton’s mother? As the plot thickens and the fog clears, it is apparent that President Grover Cleveland is to be assassinated at the 5/1/1893 opening of The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. (Incidentally, if you are interested in that Chicago Expo, read The Devil in the White City by another favorite author, Erik Larson.) It’s amazing how Dan Simmons ties historical persona and events into all his novels. If you haven’t read a Simmons novel...shame on you. If you read my reviews, you know that I’m a big fan of the three dots (a.k.a ellipsis). Regardless, Sherlock surmises that the anarchists have a list of world presidents and royalty to assassinate. Remember that President James A. Garfield was shot by ‘wacko’ Charles J. Guiteau and subsequently died in 1881 and later in 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. The late 1800s into the early 1900s were very volatile, so Sherlock might be on to something. While I just touched on the beginning of the novel, I’ll let you plow through the last 500 gripping pages or so. It’s going to be a jaunt.
And so what do I like about Dan Simmons’s novels? Well, he kinda over informs the reader like Wikipedia. For instance ,I know that in 1893, Clara Hay was 44 years old when she died, Sherlock Holmes was 38 years old and taller than normal, Henry James was 50 years old and had gout, Clarence King was 5’ 6”, Henry James is 49 years old, Samuel Clemens is 57 years old, William Dean Howells is 56 years old, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr is 52 years old, Rudyard Kipling is 27 years old, and Teddy Roosevelt was a stocky 5’ 8”. This information gives the reader a upgraded character discernment with a hint of the milieu during the time period. Let’s face it, back in the 1800s, if you were 5’ 10” you were considered a semi-giant. I don’t think any writer has a better handle on the reality of the times of their novel than Dan Simmons. But the biggest asset Simmons has is the non-drowsy zone he creates. I have read at least ten Dan Simmons novels and never once did I nod off. This is one of America’s best novelist, and I don’t know why this Science fiction/ horror/ fantasy writer doesn’t get his just kudos. Okay, I know he won the Hugo Award in 1989, but it's 26 years later...where is the current adulation? Do I recommend this novel? Is the Pope Catholic?
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: In the above novel, Henry James, while in his room in John Hay’s mansion, reads about Sherlock’s adventures in The Strand Magazine of the United Kingdom. This is the actual magazine that Arthur Conan Doyle first published his Sherlock Holmes detective short stories in a serialization format. It seems that all writers of the mid 1800s published their stories in this form. Henry James tries to find out if Sherlock is real by asking him questions from some of the stories in the magazine. Sherlock is sharp and, in fact, corrects some of the magazine’s adventures. Are these magazine serials why Sherlock thinks he is not “a real person?” Later in the novel, Samuel Clemens wonders if maybe he is also a fictional character in Sherlock Holmes’s fictional story. He asks Henry James that maybe…” this whole assassination plot is part of some melodramatic tale?”
Even the great Charles Dickens published his stories in magazines, then later in the form of a novel. According to Prof. Joel J. Brattin, Honorary Curator of Fellman Dickens Collection, “Every one of Charles Dickens’s novels was published serially--that is, the novels appeared not all at once, but in parts or installments, over a space of time. Publishing his novels in serial form expanded Dickens’s readership, as more people could afford to buy fiction on the installment plan; publishers, too, liked the idea, as it allowed them to increase sales and to offer advertisements in the serial parts. And Dickens enjoyed the intimacy with his audience that serialization provided.”
Sherlock Holmes:
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