Sherlock Holmes and
the King’s Evil by Donald Thomas – Another wonderful collection of short
stories from a modern master of Holmes. Each of the stories features the
scientific Holmes. He does not deduce solutions from his amazing powers of
observation and analysis. Instead, he is the early criminalist applying the
sciences of his time.
In the first story, The
Case of the Tell-Tale Hands, Holmes is asked to determine why Arthur
Savile, the brother of Raymond Ashley Savile who is the third Earl of Blagdon,
has moved from eccentric behaviour to the bizarre. He has taken to wearing gloves
inside and outside. He will take them off to play the piano but for few other
reasons. More puzzling he has broken into his brother’s house in the middle of
the night. Nothing has been taken. It appears he has only entered the house to
spend a short time handling expensive porcelain pieces on display.
Holmes brings his fingerprint powder to the house. Carefully
dusting the porcelain collection he determines which items were handled and
where they were touched.
At the same time he has learned the brother, Arthur, is a believer in
spiritualism and easily convinced there is real science in the palm reading.
As with the original stories by Doyle the evidence for the
conclusions are there to be drawn but I, like Watson, rarely see them until
Holmes explains their significance.
The second story, The
Case of the King’s Evil, sees Holmes and Watson working to determine what
has happened to two brothers, keepers of the Old Light beacon, missing in the
quivering sands near the coast.
The twist is that Alice Castelnau, sister of the missing
men, has come to engage Watson rather than Holmes for the investigation. To the
amusement of Holmes and the bemusement of Watson, she is looking to Watson to
solve the mystery.
A modest clue is pebble brought by Miss Castelnau. Holmes
conducts tests upon the stone. Determining its specific gravity allows him to
identify the mineral and provide a lead.
As they move forward I learned that the disease of scrofula
was also known as the King’s Evil because almost a thousand years earlier the
pope had given the English king, Edward the Confessor, the power to cure the
condition by touching the victim.
The other three mysteries are as interesting and clever. The
last story has Holmes dealing with a famous World War I incident involving the United
States
Thomas effectively treads the delicate line with Wason of
avoiding him either being a fool or the equal of Sherlock. He is the earnest
aide to the Great Detective. The difference between them is well illustrated by
Holmes statement:
Indeed so. I fear that on such
occasions, my dear Watson, you see but do not observe. The distinction is quite
clear and not unimportant.
To read Thomas is to return to the Baker
Street
****
My previous review of a Thomas collection of stories and a
profile of the author can be found at (2010) - The Execution of Sherlock Holmes and (2012) - "T" is for Donald Serrell Thomas
Bill - Normally I'm somewhat of a purist about fictional characters. For instance, I prefer the Rex Stout Nero Wolfe stories to the Robert Goldsborough stories and I prefer the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes to Laurie R. King's. I think it's more my taste than anything objective. But this collection really looks tempting. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. I am equally a "purist". Thomas is making me impure with his stories featuring Holmes.
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