Reviewed by Jeanne
With wife Mary off on a visit again, Doctor Watson is
visiting his friend Sherlock Holmes at their old digs on Baker Street when a lady
comes calling. She’s Isla McLaren, and
she has a mystery for Holmes to solve, involving ghosts and a missing
maidservant. Holmes dismisses her rather
brusquely, though Watson notes the woman appears to have a fine intellect and
makes some very sharp observations herself on the state of Holmes’ finances.
The next day brings a summons from the senior Holmes
brother, Mycroft, and the two are dispatched to France to investigate a
possible act of sabotage against the French wine industry. Possible suspects include the McLaren family,
whose family whisky business would benefit from a wine shortage. Holmes and Watson have a very tangled web of
international and family intrigue to unravel if they are to solve this case,
which puts their very lives in danger.
I’ve been a Holmes fan ever since my mother first read “The
Adventure of the Speckled Band” aloud to me when I was a child. I’ve read all Doyle’s works and a good bit of
the pastiches and continuations, including Nicholas Meyers, Solar Pons, Laurie
King, Michael Hardwick, etc. Some are wonderful, some less so. In part, I think
it’s because each reader forms his or her own view of the characters,
emphasizing certain traits, discounting others, to form a mental image of
Holmes, Watson, and the other denizens of the Sherlockian realm. A book I may
hate (I’m looking at you, Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Dibdin) may
indeed have redeeming qualities to another, while a book I adore (Seven
Percent Solution, Beekeeper’s Apprentice) might not appeal to
another Conan Doyle reader.
With that out of the way, I enjoyed Unquiet Spirits
very much indeed. I had not read the
first in the series but I will rectify that soon. MacBird doesn’t truly attempt to mimic the
Doyle’s (or Watson’s) voice and writing, although the book has some of the
flavor of the times. Some authors’
attempts to truly capture the original voice come off as stilted or stiff,
while the writing in this one flows very well for me.
Much of the story is set in Scotland, in the haunted,
ancestral home of the McLarens, Castle Braedern. It’s suitably dark, cold, and bleak, and not
just because it’s winter. Holmes,
predictably, is unimpressed with the tales of ghosts and spirits lurking in
drafty corridors, but it does provide the sort of backdrop Conan Doyle was fond
of employing. MacBird does an excellent job of evoking the atmosphere of castle
living, from the chill in the air to the recent addition of indoor plumbing,
though older methods are still advised.
This Sherlock is a passionate man, and I don’t necessarily mean
that in a romantic sense: he can be annoyed or impatient, angry, gentle,
considerate, and, yes, caring. For
example, the laird of Castle Braedern is high handed, treating Holmes as hired
help and requesting that he perform for the amusement of the guests. Holmes reacts
angrily, and I would say appropriately, though Watson is sometimes taken aback
at the intensity of the reaction, but safe to say there are other circumstances
of which the good doctor is unaware.
Which brings up another aspect of the book: Holmes’ past.
During the course of the investigation, Watson becomes privy to some
stories of Holmes as a school boy, and those tales may account for some of his
character quirks. I found it believable.
There are a number of vivid characters in these pages, and I
think that’s one reason I enjoyed it so much. Some are detestable, others are
intriguing and complex. The twisted plot lines were well managed and kept me
turning pages until the very end.
For me, a most satisfying story indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment