Sherlock Holmes Book Reviews - The Coronet Conspiracy
Posted by Steve Emecz on
Sherlock Holmes Magazine (issue 14)
"Holmes takes on one other biggest cases of his career, with international ramifications. Could it be that plots to remove the heads of the governments of England, France, and the German Empire are all linked!"
Sydney Passengers - The Passengers Log Journal - Volume 27 - No 1
This is an excellent pastiches for those who are not looking for the 57th short story or the 5th novel featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. And even better, this is only Book One of three, with books Two and Three yet to be published.
There appears to be two different investigations being undertaken, or are they linked? It is 1888 and Detective Inspector Abberline of Scotland Yard, while attending the crime scene for the murder of Annie Chapman in Whitechapel, comes across a note with a code on it - which was carried by a man a the crime scene who is mistakenly identified as the suspect, and who is then chased by a mob and falls from a building. Abberline takes the note to Sherlock Holmes, who solves the code and takes it to Mycroft, which leads to the investigation of an international conspiracy to harm the Heads of Stage of Britain, France and Germany. this is the "Sinister House", headed by an unknown mastermind.
The story involves characters both real, such as Inspector Abberline, Jack The Ripper, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Henri Georges Stephane Adolphe Opper de Blowitz, the former Times correspondent in Paris and Lord Salisbury, the British PM; fictional characters from other stories such as C. Auguste upin (Edgar Allan Poe) and Count Fosco (from Wilkie Collins' The Woman In White); and many other characters associated with the Sherlock Holmes stories, such as Shinwell Johnson, Billy The Page, Wiggins, Mrs Hudson and Mycroft. There is also a clever use of the original names Conan Doyle discarded for Holmes and Watson; Sherrinford Holmes and Ormond Sacker, respectively.
I enjoyed this novel very much, as it places Holmes and Watson in a large international plot, much like 'His Last Bow', 'The Second Stain', 'The Bruce Partington Plans' and The Valley of Fear. Also there is a complexity of whether The Ripper case and the international plot are connected or not. If there is one area for pause, it is the character of Dr Watson, who comes across as somewhat carping, though as it is 188, he is engaged, so he has a lot on his mind. Having enjoyed this novel, it was good to come to the end with the words 'To be continued..' I will watch out for Book Two and Three. I have come late to MX Publishing, but their books are attractively designed and printed, and I have found the stories entertaining.
The Coronet Conspiracy is available from this site and also from:
Sinister House Book 1
1888 - In the midst of the murderous phrenzy plaguing the streets of Whitechapel, a case of mistaken identity, a courier’s dispatch containing a coded message, and an urgent request from Scotland Yard draw Sherlock Holmes into a case that uncovers criminal schemes fixed on removing the heads of the governments of England, France, and the German Empire. Convinced these events are not simply calamitous coincidences, Holmes goes to his brother Mycroft, reasoning such endeavors must be orchestrated by a single malicious mastermind. With his trusted colleague, John Watson, at his side, as well as a rogues gallery of characters, old and new, Holmes throws himself into the fray. With international implications, this case tests Holmes’ abilities to their very limits, as he doggedly pursues the identity of the man behind the malevolence, and the destruction of such a Sinister House.