Sherlock Holmes: The Vanishing Man
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3.2 • 14 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A baffling disappearance sends a reluctant Holmes and Watson into the world of the occult—a historical mystery that “ranks among the top novel-length Sherlock Holmes pastiches” (Publishers Weekly)
It is 1896, and Sherlock Holmes is investigating a self-proclaimed psychic who disappeared from a locked room, in front of several witnesses.
While attempting to prove the existence of telekinesis to a scientific society, an alleged psychic, Kellway, vanished before their eyes during the experiment. With a large reward at stake, Holmes is convinced Kellway is a charlatan—or he would be, if he had returned to claim his prize. As Holmes and Watson investigate, the case only grows stranger, and they must contend with an interfering “occult detective” and an increasingly deranged cult. But when one of the society members is found dead, events take a far more sinister turn . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Purser-Hallard (The Pendragon Protocol) delivers one of the cleverest locked room mysteries ever tackled by Sherlock Holmes. In 1896, Thomas Kellway, who asserts that he has telekinetic powers (and that he has been "remotely influenced since before his birth by superior intelligences" from the planet Venus), approaches Sir Newnham Speight, the chairman of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Psychical Phenomena, who has offered 10,000 to anyone who can demonstrate a psychic ability to the satisfaction of the society's leaders. In a controlled experiment, Kellway is locked one night in a small room next to a second locked room containing a ball in a box that he will attempt to move with his mind. Despite Kellway's room being watched at regular five-minute intervals by two-person teams, he somehow vanishes, leaving Speight to wonder whether he's encountered a genuine claimant or a brilliant hoaxer. Speight enlists Holmes and Watson to uncover the truth. John Dickson Carr and Anthony Boucher fans will be gratified at the logical explanation the master rationalist devises. This ranks among the top novel-length Sherlock Holmes pastiches.
