The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls

This crime novel combines a set of famous characters and a reference to Dr. House with aplomb and humor. Thomas Carnacki the Ghost Finder, from the 19th Century, becomes entwined with Anna Moriarity, Professor James Moriarity (her father), Dr. John H. Watson, Jack the Ripper, the Paris Ripper, and an amesic Sherlock Holmes just recused from an ice cold bath at Reichenbach Falls.

This is what happened between Holmes's salvation from the freezing waters and his appearance in places such as Tibet before returning to London.

The return of Sherlock Holmes in the person of Jeremy Brett to Edward Hardwicke's Dr. John H. Watson in the 1990s BBC TV series was a gem. The fainting away of the good doctor was sublime as he spied the dead Holmes standing across the room for the first time in three years. Scenes like these are so entertaining as to make veiwers wish for a real Holmes and Watson. These fans are as hooked on the Great Detective as Trekkers are to the Star Trek® universe. Too bad that we don't all have people in our lives that take such a part of our hearts as Holmes and Watson, but there it is.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill off Holmes, but the public would have none of it and he brought Sherlock back. Writers tire of their characters and of coming up with new stories about them. Agatha Christie was so tired of Hercule Poirot she was at times filled with the desire to get rid of him. Lilian Jackson Braun regulaly kills off readers' favorite characters or sends them packing across the globe for a good long while, at least. In one interview, she stated that these people simply had to go. Agatha herself wished that Margery Alleringham had written many more novels and stories about Albert Campion - so do I. I wish that Tamar Myers could write more of Magdelena Yoder, but it is time for other things and these new endeavors are pithy and engaging.

Well, write one yourself, people say. I don't have one to write - yet -- I've nothing at all when compared to The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls.

J. Robert King The RPG King- pun intended - brought back Carnacki the Ghost Hunter and put him the start of his career, in Switzerland. He then made Professor James Moriarty into a realistic,lovable person with a genius wife and genius daughter before Jack the Ripper collided with the family. The meeting between James and his future wife Anna would make an awesomely grand Christmas card and the whole book is worth reading for that one crystalline beautiful scene alone. I don't know how he thought of the image.

The whole story weaves together history, fiction, gore, and comedy - and the actual notes sent to the police by the Ripper are included. The victims enter the story in believable places. The departure of an amnesic Holmes as the Paris Ripper is as wonderful as it is insane. The concept of Jack the Ripper plays up Conan's Doyle belief in an afterlife and spirits and strikes it hard against Holmes's skepticism. This part is interesting.

In the latter portions of the story, Carnacki needs medical help and Watson happens to be at hand. The doctor gets him to a veteran's hospital in Paris where Carnacki is attended by Dr.Maison - Dr. House, in English. What a play! TV's House is built on Sherlock Holmes, who is built on Conan Doyle's first medical instructor - a genius of deduction. This story is one of coming full circle-and-a-half through history had fiction. One could lose one's sense of reality in its pages and wig off in search of Holmes in Europe.

The most humorous portions of the novel lie in part in Sherlock's amnesic state. He takes the name of the tailor form the tag inside his suit coat - Mr. Silence. He doesn't know who he is, but he can still deduce everything else in the world.

Other humor bursts forth from Carnacki's manipulation of the press in order to goad the Paris Ripper into the open. This is funnier. One such article made me laugh out loud and drop the book. The story goes on to include a skeleton chasing people around an infirmary.

This book is historical fiction, spread thick toward the fiction end of the spectrum and engaging. It is a rolicking good time. There is a gateway widely open at the end for a sequel and I hope we get one soon.

Thank you, Messers King, Hogsdon, and Conan Doyle. I am laughing.

William Hope Hodgson created the supernatural detective Thomas Carnacki, mainly of the World War I era. A few of the Carnacki stories did not see publication until WWII, however.

Mr. Hodgson lived from November 1877 until April 1918 and was a late Victorian Era author of poetry, essays, crime, and the supernatuiral. John R. King - more often known as J. Robert King in his designing work for the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons and similar RPGs - is intrigued by both the supernatural of Carnacki and others and by Sherlock Holmes and so we have King's The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls, publshed by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC in 2008.

Mr. King also wrote Mad Merlin in English and French, and Le Morte d'Avalon set in the Aurthurian universe. His accomplishments in the world of RPG gaming are incredible and the move to novels is a double accomlishment. The hardback book Reichenbach Falls is like a role playing game one can hold directly in one's hands as it unfolds itself and one's imagination. Thus he's combined two art forms and the book is less gimmicky than some graphic novels based on RPGs or the other way 'round. Read it soon!