TEN YEARS BEYOND BAKER STREET: Sherlock Holmes Matches Wits with the Diabolical Dr. Fu Manchu

by Cay Van Ash ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 1984

Narrated by Sax Rohmer's Dr. Petrie, not Conan Doyle's Dr. Watson: a fanciful 1914 adventure for Sherlock Holmes--trailing Fu Manchu's dirty work through the charmingly unlikely landscape of. . . Wales. The spirited nonsense begins when Dr. P., sidekick to Rohmer's hero Nayland Smith, discovers that Smith has disappeared from his Devonshire home. Who's behind this skulduggery? Fu Manchu, of course. Who alone can save the day? A very reluctant Holmes--who is dragged away from his beekeeping retirement (and his secret espionage work). Soon, then, Holmes and Petrie are tracking clues to Fu Manchu's assorted hideouts in Wales--while Manchu-vian henchmen assail them with gases, poisons, reptiles, and other exotic lethal devices. Several murder victims turn up in Wales: anyone who has caught on to the ""Si Fan"" activities there has been marked for elaborate killing. Holmes discovers Fu's coal-mine arsenal; he's even invited to tea with Dr. F.--with Petrie's captive fiancÉe Karamaneh slipping clues to the good guys. And eventually the kidnapped Smith is indeed found, but Petrie winds up imprisoned along with his boss--which means that Holmes (in one of his many disguises) must come to the rescue. A bit slow-moving, short on topnotch Holmesian deduction or classy Watsonian style--but lively, goodnatured fun for antique-suspense devotees, neither too earnest nor too tongue-in-cheek.

Pub Date: March 14, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION