This week Jen dives (appropriately) into “The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls” – the same falls into which Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty plunged subsequent to hand-to-hand combat at their top in Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem.” To Jen’s discerning approval, John R. King resolves the mystery of the two gentlemen previously presumed dead from the fall.
Without my esteemable father-in-law Everett Morss’ book piles, I would not have found this book. I shudder at the thought. Often a book has a remarkable plot or is well written. Either of these lead to one’s enjoyment. This book has the honor of being both; brilliantly written and one hell of a story.
I was quite literally captivated from the first paragraph to the last. What a clever, clever book. Sherlock Holmes and his arch-rival James Moriarty are locked in a battle to the death.
Beginning where one of Sherlock Holmes final scenes unfolds, this novel starts as a violent squabble at the falls high in the Swiss Alps and ends in a way you would never guess. Never. What is really happening? To whom are we allied? What is the source of this feud and how has it led to murder?
Other characters, Moriarty’s daughter Anna and a young Stephen Carnaki, are equally formidable. Seen from many points of view, the evil is incarnate in surprising places. It emanates from sources unknown and the lion and lamb are both suspect.
Above and beyond the calignostic plot, there floats a delicately erudite fancy. King extolls the joys of math and music and deductive reason with an almost romantic touch. These characters are not just brave and bold, but smart. Genius is not a word to bandy about lightly, but it applies in many contexts within the story.
The ideas are so thought-provoking in many cases that you find yourself just holding the book and staring off into space. What if it were this simple? What if that were possible? Hmmm. How very artful.
John R. KIng takes Arthur Conan Doyle’s great characters, mixes them with that of William Hope Hodgson, and fabricates something entirely new and original. Holmes fan or not, this book will galvanize you.
Look beyond the everyday. Try a new perspective and, like magic, doors open that we did not know were closed. “The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls” is a contemplative thriller – the best of two worlds.