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Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Seven by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Reader Reviews 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: Diverting slice of Holmes-iana, June 13, 2003 Reviewer: Fred Harvey from Birmingham England This is the liveliest and most diverting of the Val Andrews patiche Holmes novels ,mainly I think because it is relatively traditional in approach and correspondingly feels slightly more authentic than most of the others. Holmes and Watson go undercover as members of a secular monastic society in Sussex ,where two of the seven members have recently died following receipt of a letter from an unknown source.The prior is anxious to ensure the group is not further depleted. The mystery proves linked to the theft some years earlier of a precious jewel and before the solution is revealed we get ersatz "ghostly"appearances from Roundheads and Cavaliers ,the wholesale slaughter of livestock and fish ,not to mention a guest appearance from Inspector Lestrade. There is an explicit reference to The Hound of the Baskervilles in the text and the similarities are there ,although Andrews operates on a much lower level of competence and ambition .As with that novel Holmes is absent for much of the running time and there is a red herring in the form of a supernatural undertone ,which proves to be a cloak for the flesh and blood nature of the crime and the novel is set in a remote part of the British Isles. Things get a little more philosophical than usual in the last 10 or so pages with Watson revealed as having qualms about capital punishment .These are slightly at odds with the rest of the book which is an enjoyable and lightweight read
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