Authors: Donald Thomas
ISBN-13: 9781605981345, ISBN-10: 1605981346
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Date Published: December 2010
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Donald Thomas is the author of more than twenty books, including The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice from the Crypt, The Execution of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and the King's Evil and Sherlock Holmes and the Ghosts of Bly. He lives in Bath.
"Few authors have done as well in bringing these beloved and familiar characters to life. Donald Thomas masterfully evokes the flavor of Doyle‘s original stories of the great detective."—Publishers Weekly
Henry James's The Turn of the Screw provides the inspiration for the lengthy title tale of Thomas's superb fifth collection of Sherlock Holmes pastiches (after 2009's Sherlock Holmes and the King's Evil). In 1898, Holmes and Watson intervene on behalf of Victoria Temple, a governess confined to an insane asylum after a verdict of guilty but insane for the murder of 10-year-old Miles Mordaunt, who was suffocated only days after his eight-year-old sister, Flora, died of diphtheria. The accused murderess is convinced that the ghosts of a valet and her predecessor as governess were trying to seduce both children into evil. The three other selections are nearly up to the same high standard. "The Case of a Boy's Honour," about a scandal at a boarding school, compels even without a murder to solve. Sherlockians will hope Thomas continues to turn out these faithful and imaginative recreations for years to come. (Dec.)