Books : The Italian Secretary: A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes

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Author name: Caleb Carr

: The Italian Secretary: A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes
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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Carroll & Graf
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: March 18, 2005
Publishing house: Carroll & Graf
Sale Popularity Level: 252453
Studio: Carroll & Graf



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Product Description:
Mycroft Holmes’s encoded message to his brother, Sherlock, is unsubtle enough even for Dr. Watson to decipher: a matter concerning the safety of Queen Victoria herself calls them to Edinburgh’s Holyrood House to investigate the confounding and gruesome deaths of two young men—horrific incidents that took place with her highness in residence. The victims were crushed in a manner surpassing human power. And while recent attempts on her majesty’s life raise a number of possibilities, these intrigues also seem strangely connected to an act of evil that took place centuries earlier…

For indeed, the slaying of David Rizzio, music master and friend to Mary Queen of Scots, was an extraordinarily brutal and treacherous act—even for a time when brutality and treachery were the order of the day. Now, the ghosts of Holyrood House are being reawakened by someone with a diabolical agenda of greed, madness, and terror as Holmes and Watson set out to trap a killer who is eager to rewrite history in blood...


Amazon.com Review:
Although Sherlock Holmes categorically dismissed, in 'The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire,' supernatural explanations for corporeal crimes ('This Agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. ... No ghosts need apply'), one of the most popular among Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes tales is The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), in which the fate of a Devonshire family supposedly hangs on the savage appetites of an apparitional beast. More than a century later, in The Italian Secretary, Caleb Carr again presents the hawk-faced consulting detective with a yarn woven of paranormal plot threads, the mystery this time rooted in the fatal 16th-century stabbing of David Rizzio, a music teacher and confidant to Mary, Queen of Scots.

For Holmes and his affable annalist, Dr. John Watson, this spirited escapade begins sometime in the late 19th century with their receipt, in London, of an encrypted telegram from Sherlock's eccentric elder brother, Mycroft, 'a senior but anonymous government official.' It summons them to Edinburgh, Scotland, where architect Sir Alistair Sinclair and his foreman, Dennis McKay, have been slain in the midst of rehabilitating the medieval west tower of the Royal Palace of Holyrood--the very wing where Queen Mary had lived, and where Rizzio had met his brutal, politically motivated end. Mycroft fears these murders portend new threats against Britain's present monarch--the elderly Queen Victoria, who infrequently lodges at the palace--by a known assassin, perhaps in nefarious league with the German Kaiser. En route north, Holmes and Watson are menaced aboard their train by a red-bearded bomb thrower (supposedly a rabid Scots nationalist), only to discover that still greater dangers await them, and others, at Holyroodhouse. The plaintive drone of a weeping woman, cruelly punctured and shattered corpses, a pool of blood 'that never dries,' and a disembodied Italian voice with unexpected musical tastes all imply the wrath of wraiths behind recent atrocities. But Holmes and Watson deduce that greed, rather than ghosts, may be to blame.

Carr, who earned renown with his historical mysteries, The Alienist (1994) and The Angel of Darkness (1997), apparently intended The Italian Secretary to be a short story; however, he couldn't stop writing. The result is a fleet-footed, atmospherically gothic, and often amusing Holmes tale (with an exposition scene in Watson's bed chamber that’s truly priceless), but one that makes scant endeavor to enhance our understanding of Conan Doyle's characters--a less ambitious undertaking, in that respect, than Mitch Cullin's concurrently published A Slight Trick of the Mind. And while Carr displays a gift here for adopting another author's literary techniques, it is really his own style and series players that his fans are waiting to see more of in the future. --J. Kingston Pierce



Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Come Watson - The Games Afoot
"Come Watson, the games afoot" - Holmes and Watson are off to Scotland at the behest of Holmes's brother Mycroff to save the Queen.

Caleb Carr's The Italian Secretary is a fun read that those who love period mysteries and the Sherlock Holmes stories will find hard to put down. While parts of Carr's uniqueness come through, he has mastered the rhythm and style of Arthur Conan Doyle enough to take one back to the old masterpieces.

Take it in hand for a time of enjoyment escaping from the pace of modern life and pressure of the moment. But a warning - it does keep one on the edge of their seat.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - The Secrets of Holyroodhouse
Caleb Carr initially captured my attention with his historical mystery novels, The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness....both thrilling and engaging works of fiction....which gave way to the deplorable Killing Time, and seemingly the disappearance of Mr. Carr from popular fiction.

However, the author himself returns to life as does one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time, Sherlock Holmes, in Carr's 'The Italian Secretary'.

Holmes and Watson, Baker Streets most famed residents, are called to duty by Holmes' brother, Mycroft, in an effort to solve a mystery involving two recent murders that have brought a dark cloud over the Royal Palace Holyroodhouse in Scotland, one-time home of Mary Queen of Scots.

The detective and the doctor accept the challenge to join Mycroft in this latest adventure, doubly intrigued by the famed centuries old murder of David Rizzio, 'The Italian Secretary', who befriended Mary long ago, and was murdered for his troubles at Holyroodhouse as well, and whose spirit is still rumoured to wander the halls of the palace.

The two Holmes brothers and Watson set off to decipher the obvious and not so obvious clues to unravel the murders...and as is always the case with Sherlock Holmes, nothing is quite what it seems.

An entertaining follow up to the Sherlock Holmes legend created by Arthur Conan Doyle, this is a light, easy read, but nonetheless entertaining from beginning to end.




Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - A good effort at a difficult task
Caleb Carr makes a good effort here at a very difficult task. Not only does Carr take on the daunting job of resurrecting one of literature's most identifiable figures, he also goes against his own strengths as a writer to do so. Carr's forte always has been his in-depth characterizations, where as in a Holmes' book, the plot is the main thing. Also, this book is much shorter than Carr's regular work. I read, however, that this was to be a short story but it grew to a novel length and thus had to be published as a free standing piece. Overall, Carr has done a good job of providing a Sherlockian story. It was worth the time to read this credible effort.


Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Not in League for the Extraordinary Gentleman
As a longtime fan of Sherlock Holmes, I was excited about the prospects of reading this novel. Though I have yet to read any of Caleb carr's other work, I had noted the critical acclaim for his other novels, especially The Alienist: A Novel and The Angel of Darkness. I was also intrigued about the story as it took place in Scotland. With all these things to look forward to, I must admit I was disappointed with The Italian Secretary. There were some very fine parts, in particular the last two chapters, even though they may not have rung totally true to form for Sir A. Conan Doyle. Mycroft Holmes and Dr. Watson are present and deeply involved in this mystery. The story fell flat in several places, yet overall, I think the book was a worthy diversion. I place it somewhere between 2 and 3 stars.


Rated by buyers 1 out of 5 stars - Elementary, my dear Watson!
I am a big fan of Carr's and I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. Carr's earlier works - The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness were true masterpieces. But The Italian Secretary is boring, has little plot and I must say, has a very dull climax unlike his earlier works. Sherlock Holmes powers are under utilized and Mycroft's intelligence is not employed at all. It is impossible to believe that an average Scotland Yard officer could not have solved this mystery. Moreover, the role of David Rizzio, the Italian secretary is over emphasized. The book could have been smaller by a hundred pages but for the unnecessary long sentences.

I am being very harsh in the review but I expected a lot from Carr being a great fan of his works.

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