Rasputin’s Revenge by John Lescroart (2003).
2nd
adventure of Auguste Lupa, a son of God himself Sherlock Holmes!!
THE SHERLOCK HOLMES!!
And
He is as interesting and almost as good as his
dad.
What more can you possibly ask for?
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layers. – Auguste Lupa. Not just a great detective (like his dad), but
also he is the best spy in Europe (like his uncle, Mycroft).
And, get this, one of
the most respected chefs in the world!! Who would ever though that Holmes DNA
can generate a great chef? Just Brilliant!
This guy has an appetite
of a giant elephant and drains dark beers like they are the bubbled water.
Naturally, he has the size of his uncle (big in every direction) and of course
attitude/brain of his dad.
Sherlock’s mainline is “Elementary”, Lupa has “Satisfactory”.
Guess who his mom is?
THE WOMAN!! Who else?
He is the living proof of the fact that Sherlock DID have a personal life.
I guess even God needs a break.
Jules Giraud. Holms has Watson. Lupa, Giraud.
They, Watson and
Giraud, are almost identical, except Giraud has a daughter and he is not a
doctor but an ambassador/and a teacher.
Rasputin. A charismatic monk who
has a firm handle on a lot of royals, especially Queen, the wife of Czar.
He talks with staccato rumbling which sounds insane but very effective
for convincing people that he is a son of God for real.
It is not clear what he intended to do with his power up until very end,
but he is the most powerful and feared figure in Russia and he acts and speaks like
one.
Others. There are whole bunch of characters based on real
history figures.
Russian Czar, Nicolas
Romanov, and his wife, Alexandra and their kids, Olga, Tatiana, Marie,
Anastasia, Alexis and Alyosha. And then several generals and husbands and cousins
of Czar’s daughters who all have long unpronounceable names. In fact, I think
other than Lupa and his company, all the rest are based on real characters.
Then, of course, when
things going south, Lupa has the best help any human can possibly find: Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson.
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lace. –A truly magnificent
city of St. Petersburg which was and still
is called “Venice of Russia” for its beautiful buildings and lovely canals.
Except that its street is wider than Venice and as modern as Paris.
Almost
all events has taken place in Winter Palace which is according to Geraud, so
vast it takes him 20 mins to just cross the hall and has more than 20 wings.
The place is also stacked with luxuries like piles of Oriental rugs and tons of
flowers which were imported from the other side of Russia with train just
please the Queen and royals. No wonder they all taken down by mobs at the end.
However, the outside
of the palace has totally different story. It’s winter time and the war is
going on forever. People are angry, hungry and desperately want the change. You
can practically smell the revolution in the air.
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lot. – Year is 1916. The
war is raging on in the every frontline of Europe. And the Western Allies need Russia to keep fighting until
US decides to join the war. However, Czar is contemplating the peace agreement
with German because he is sick of fighting. Out of desperation, France which is about to
lose everything sends money and weapons to Russia trying desperately to
persuade Czar to continue his campaign against Germany. This incredibly
important job is handed to Geraud the ambassador and he is on his way to the
winter garden at St. Petersburg.
In
the winter garden, someone is killing people close to Czar to mentally put
pressure on him. It somehow works and Czar is getting really tired of all the
conflict. In order to persuade czar to continue fighting Germans, Geraud has to
find the killer before Czar put a stop to the war. And Lupa is there to solve
the mystery and help Geraud fulfill his desperate mission.
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erdict. –This book is ultimate tribute to
the Sherlock Holmes fan. I’ve read quite a few Holmes books written not by
Dolye, but this ranks at one of the top spots simply because Lescroart comes up
with something I never ever expected: his son.
I mean, in order to
have a kid, you have to have a girl friend or wife and have to spend sometime
with her and that means relationship and the relationship is the absolutely the
last thing any Sherlock Holmes fans with right mind would expect from the master.
I mean, Sherlock is a logical monster/machine!! And machine is not supposed to
have a pet or write a love letter or get involved with woman!! But then here
you go. John Lescroart is apparently much better man than I am.
The interaction
between Lupa and Sherlock is one for the ages, for Sherlock Holmes fans,
anyway.
Really entertaining book with Russian history back ground
and
simply MUST for Holmes fan.
