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Sherlock Holmes & The Giant's Hand By Matthew Booth | |||||||||
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Matthew Booth is a young writer. He is the Clerk of the Court in a British High Court and his interest in criminology – and the master sleuth Sherlock Holmes – started when he was a teenager. He has previously published a monograph on Holmes and the Camera and it is very clear that he has a bright future ahead as a novelist. Sherlock Holmes and the Giant’s Hand – the first of three carefully structured stories in this collection – is set in rural Victorian England and is based on a case mentioned, but not recorded, by Dr Watson. The story is a gripping murder mystery which reaches its climax in the unlikely setting of an ancient burial mound. Matthew Booth has captured the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and this collection of stories has all the elements necessary to keep every reader turning the pages. ISBN 0 901091 09 0 | |||||
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‘Make, a long arm, Watson’. A review of publications Sherlockians may wish to add to their bookshelf. Many Musgraves will know Matthew Booth, either personally or via his work, for he has been a leading light in the Society almost since its inception. Matthew has now published his first book. The Giant’s Hand, fittingly chosen by Breese Books (themselves too long absent from the Sherlockian scene), as the first new title to relaunch their list. Matthew’s stated outlook on Sherlockian pastiche is that it should fit so seamlessly into the Doylean Canon that the join cannot be seen, and – although the task is a difficult one – the three stories in this collection comes as close as makes no difference, despite being of the ‘long-short’ type, perhaps the most awkward to handle. All three stories are based on cases noted in passing, but not recorded in detail, by Watson. The Giant’s Hand itself deals with ‘the Addleton tragedy, and the singular contents of the ancient British barrow’; ‘The York Place Prophecy’, with the madness of Colonel Warburton; and ‘The Hollow Bank with the dreadful business of the Abernetty family. The weakest of the three is ‘The York Place Prophecy’, not from any defects of plot or style but simply because the explanation is perhaps a little too close to that of one of Conan Doyle’s own tales, but even here Matthew Booth’s story is head and shoulders above most of the pastiche one will read. (And indeed is far superior to some of the canonical turkeys, such as The Yellow Face). Matthew Booth’s particular strength has always been in description, the ability – shared with Conan Doyle – to convey in a neatly turned phrase that which another writer would struggle for a whole page to get across. If Matthew Booth’s early work had a weakness it was in his dialogue, but he has worked on this (and the fact that he is now busy writing for radio in the USA cannot hurt). But over and above all this is the authenticity of the storytelling. There are few borrowings of telling phrases from the Canon here, but sometimes one has to look twice to make sure, since the real voice of Watson comes across loud and clear. Booth has pretty well achieved his aim, for if any of these stories were mixed into the canonical collections, a reader who did not know the original would have difficulty distinguishing between the two authors. This is what pastiche ought to be, but too often is not, and one is almost tempted to indulge in those ‘stray magnifiques, coup-de-maitres and tours- de-force’ which Villard lavished upon Holmes. Matthew Booth has been commissioned to write a novel-length book for Breese, and that will also be worth seeking out when it appears. In the meantime, read The Giant’s Hand. John Hall | ||
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