The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Deathly Relics
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
An atmospheric, intricately plotted new mystery in which Sherlock Holmes and Henry Vernier race to catch a villainous murderer at large in the Vatican and Rome.
Sherlock Holmes and Henry Vernier are visiting Rome on a diplomatic mission when the Pope asks the world’s greatest detective to help find a stolen relic: the forefinger of “doubting” Saint Thomas. But when the relic is quickly and mysteriously returned, and all seems to be easily resolved, the forefinger is stolen again in a brutal attack.
Holmes and Vernier must follow the trail of a sacrilegious murderer through the streets of Rome and the halls of the Vatican, uncovering dark ties between members of the church and an Italian crime family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Siciliano's weak eighth Sherlock Holmes pastiche (after 2020's The Venerable Tiger), more of an action thriller than a mystery, pairs Holmes with his physician cousin, Henry Vernier, instead of Dr. Watson, a difference that has little impact on the enterprise. Holmes has retrieved a sensitive document for the Vatican at the request of Pope Leo XIII, who now asks for further assistance. A sacred relic, the forefinger of Saint Thomas, has been stolen from its locked storage case in a chapel at Santa Croce, where it was stored with five other holy relics. The motive for the theft is unclear, but the matter seems to resolve itself when the missing skeletal digit is returned in a package from an anonymous sender. However, that proves a false ending. After a guard is placed in the chapel, he's murdered by a method that's the hallmark of the criminal group known as the Camorra, and all the relics are stolen. The clichéd plot, complete with a damsel in distress, isn't enhanced by a romantic subplot that occupies far too much of the novel. Hopefully, Siciliano will return to form next time.
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