The
Scroll of The Dead by David Stuart Davies (2009).
As the title mentioned, this is
another good story of master sleuth from Titan Books’ The Further Adventure of
Sherlock Holmes series.
Not overly exciting or creative,
but for a Sherlock fan like me, this book is more than good enough for a couple
of days reading.
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layers. – Sherlock Holmes.
The God. He is exactly as he is supposed to be. The writer wisely NOT add
any new characteristic to the master like married with children or new lover,
etc.
Dr. Watson. Same good old loyal Dr, Watson whom we have
known for decades.
It is impossible not to love him. I’ve always wanted him for my family doctor ever since my first Sherlock Adventure.
Inspector Hardcastle. Almost identical to our beloved Inspector Lestrade for his vigor and determination. Less imagination, off course.
It is impossible not to love him. I’ve always wanted him for my family doctor ever since my first Sherlock Adventure.
Inspector Hardcastle. Almost identical to our beloved Inspector Lestrade for his vigor and determination. Less imagination, off course.
Sebastian Melmoth. A villain. A big, elegant, intelligent menace
who is dying to get the secret of immortality. A mad man.
Felshaw. Melmoth’s side kick. Big, mean, brutal, elegant
man who kills without remorse. Exact opposite of Dr. Watson.
Sir Charles. An expert of Egyptian
history.
Catriona Andrew. Sir. Charles’s smart and
forceful daughter.
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lace. – It starts
from, where else?, 221B Baker St. London. Then British Museum. And a small
island called Grebe Isle which is a few hours train ride from London where also
all the main actions take place. And then back to London. 221B Baker St. for the final confrontation. So very Conan Doyle-ish.
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lot. – It’s very
straight forward story. Something precious is stolen from famous British Museum
with little or no trace left.
What’s worse for Scotland Yard is what little evidences
they collect are either too simple or too confusing to make sense at all.
With request of Yard, Sherlock
Holmes join the game! And naturally, mystery intensifies, bullets starts flying and corpses
turn up frequently, all the fun stuffs happen with rapid succession until the
final showdown. And one more final small climax after that.
This is a very
typical Sherlock Holmes Adventure written by a writer who obviously is very
familiar with Conan Dolye’s writing style.
The center of
the mystery is an ancient papyrus called “The Scroll of The Dead” written by
Egyptian high priest Setaph which is believed to contain the spell of
immortality. Hence it attracts all sort of intelligent but obsessive people and
as you can guess by now, most of them are mad!! Or more precisely, the promise
of eternity drives them mad.
So off course
it’s up to our hero duo to save the day and ...well, you
know what happen if you go up against Holmes and Watson. In fact, every living
soul in London, or possibly Europe, knows what will happen to them if they start
fighting against Holmes except off course all the stupid villains who think
they are better than the master. How stupid.
V
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erdict. Quite a good
adaptation of Sherlock Holmes Adventure.
There is nothing awkward or out of place in this Sherlock Holmes
Adventure. Everything including dialogue and atmosphere is in its right place. But
since this one is involved with Egyptian papyrus and mysterious toms and also we
live in an age of speed and action, this book puts more emphasis on Adventure
than Mystery.
Therefore, in order to reach the conclusion, our heroes have to go through
Indiana Jones kind of action to get to bottom of it, which is surprisingly fun.
The only down side is the ultimate villain Melmoth who enters with grand
promise of being evil-er than Moriarty evilness just isn’t living up to its
promises. At the end, instead of taking entire London as a hostage for 1 billion pounds or bring back army of Zombies with "Scroll of the Dead", he goes down like an idiot. Sight.
Other than that, this book is a fun adaptation
of Sherlock Holmes Adventure and good enough for your collection, I think.
Now, if you look at the rest of the catalogue from this Sherlock Holmes
Adventure from Titan Books, it will blow your mind away!!
In this series, Sherlock and Watson are up against, get this! aliens,
villains more vicious than Moriarty(again), American bad guys and much more.
There are also a story about their first contact with each other which
should be an interesting setup if told by right writer.
Also, cameos including Houdini, Roosevelt and young Professor Moriarty.
I can't wait to get my hands on these.
