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Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra

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Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra

By: Paul D. Gilbert
Narrated by: Simon de Deney
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Summary

A BRAND-NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY.

If you love Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original, you’ll love this gripping new tale from the world of Sherlock Holmes.

Autumn 1898. London. A scandal in the making.

Dockworkers are stunned by the arrival of the Matilda Briggs, a long overdue tea cutter returning from Calcutta. Abandoned by its crew, the dust-covered vessel seems to have drifted into a vacant berth guided by an unseen hand.

The only member of the crew aboard is a lone cabin boy in the throes of death, following a murderous attack. The ship’s log has also vanished without a trace. All that remains is a series of indecipherable markings have been scratched into the ship’s decking. Sherlock Holmes and his faithful Watson are called to divest the Matilda Briggs of its secrets, only to be subtly warned off by the ship’s insurers. Then a young man appears at 122B Baker Street with a mysterious packet from his missing father—who disappeared journeying to London from Calcutta. A confounding conspiracy seems set to boil over.

What was in the cargo besides innocent tea chests? Will the violence and rebellion that follow shift the tides from the favour of the Great Detective?

Is the world finally ready for this tale?

©2019 Paul Gilbert (P)2023 MX Publishing Detective Historical Mystery Fiction Sherlock Holmes England
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This started off so well and quickly went downhill. Let’s start with the story. First of all, as any Holmes reader knows, Moriarty was a Professor, whose sidekick was Colonel Moran. So hearing “Colonel Moriarty” was a no-no almost before the book began. That is just plain carelessness and unforgivable. The story then quickly goes into boring drivel mode, with a long, long section of some letters being read, a section that lasts so long it becomes pointless. Where is the excitement? Perhaps it was in the last 90 minutes, which was when I realised I would rather watch a fly walk up the window than finish it. There is little tension. The plot seems to go off into irrelevant territory and meanders its way back with the odd forced deduction explanation from Holmes.

The narrator is simply awful. His voice has a hard edge that is grating; he puts emphasis where none should be and, most importantly when you are listening to a book, you cannot tell who is speaking because all the character voices are the same voice with the same intonations, unless the author has written “said I softly”, at which point, his tone softens. If I could return it, I would. I shall keep an eye out for when I can because this is just not up to scratch on either the writing/plot/character side or the narration side.

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