Wednesday 19 January 2011

 

Review: The Baker Street Phantom by Fabrice Bourland

My edition: Paperback, published in 2010 by Gallic Books, 185 pages.

Description: In the spring of 1932, with Londoners terrorised by a series of brutal murders, the private detective agency of Messrs. Simpson and Trelawney quietly opens its doors in Bloomsbury. The first person to call on their services is a worried Lady Arthur Conan Doyle. She tells of mysterious events at 221 Baker Street - and a premonition that the London murders signal terrible danger for mankind.

Their investigation will take our intrepid heroes into a world of seances and spirits. Aided by the most famous detective of all time, they must draw on their knowledge of the imaginary to find the perpetrators of some very real and bloody crimes before they strike again...

Review:

For a book pretending to mimic classic Sherlock Holmes stories it's a very poor imitation. While the writing style certainly suggests the same general storyline and manages to realistically depict London midway the 1930's The Baker Street Phantom ended up being utterly unrealistic.

I normally don't mind paranormal situations or science fiction in a novel when one expects it, however this book is clearly trying to bank in on the still famous detective stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and because of the giant leap into the supernatural fails miserably doing so. Up until the very end I was hoping the detectives central in this book would Scooby-Doo their way out of the mystery, but they sadly never did.

5/10

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