The Fifth Heart
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
In 1893, Sherlock Holmes and Henry James come to America together to investigate the suicide of Clover Adams, wife of the esteemed historian Henry Adams - a member of the family that has given the United States two Presidents. Quickly, the investigators deduce that there's more to Clover's death than meets the eye - with issues of national importance at stake.
Holmes is currently on his Great Hiatus - his three-year absence after Reichenbach Falls during which time the people of London believe him to be deceased. The disturbed Holmes has faked his own death and now, as he meets James, is questioning what is real and what is not.
Holmes' theories shake James to the core. What can this master storyteller do to fight against the sinister power - possibly Moriarty - that may or may not be controlling them from the shadows? And what was Holmes' role in Moriarty's rise?
Conspiracy, action and mystery meet in this superb literary hall of mirrors from the author of Drood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Paris in 1893, Sherlock Holmes and Henry James join forces in this outstanding novel from Simmons, who has concocted something far from the usual pastiche, with a historical figure standing in for Dr. Watson. James, the distinguished American author, is about to kill himself by plunging into the Seine, overcome by crippling depression. Just before stepping off le pont Neuf, he notices a man with an aquiline profile standing nearby; he quickly ascertains that the man is actually Holmes, believed to have perished with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls two years earlier. James is shocked to learn that Holmes was himself on the verge of taking his own life because the detective has discovered that he's merely a "literary construct." His evidence? The same inconsistencies in the original Conan Doyle stories that have provided fodder for Sherlockians for a century. This chance meeting dissuades both men from committing suicide, and they resolve to travel to America and investigate the purported suicide of diplomat Henry Adams's wife, Clover, in 1885. Simmons (Drood) knows the Holmes canon and uses that expertise in the service of a highly original reimagining of the beloved sleuth. Five-city author tour.
