Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell

by Nicholas Meyer

ebook

2 of 2 copies available

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson cross the Atlantic at the height of World War I in pursuit of a mysterious coded telegram in this new mystery from the author of The Return of the Pharaoh.

June, 1916. With a world war raging on the continent, exhausted John H. Watson, M.D. is operating on the wounded full-time when his labors are interrupted by a knock on his door, revealing Sherlock Holmes, with a black eye, a missing tooth and a cracked rib. The story he has to tell will set in motion a series of world-changing events in the most consequential case of the detective's career.

Amid rebellion in Ireland and revolution in Russia, Germany has a secret plan to win the war and Sir William Melville of the British Secret Service dispatches the two aging friends to learn what the scheme is before it can be put into effect. In pursuit of a mysterious coded telegram sent from Berlin to an unknown recipient in Mexico, Holmes and Watson must cross the Atlantic, dodge German U-boats and assassination attempts, and evade the intrigues of young J. Edgar Hoover, while enlisting the help of a beautiful, eccentric Washington socialite as they seek to foil the schemes of Holmes's nemesis, the escaped German spymaster Von Bork.

Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell plunges Holmes into a world that eerily resembles our own, where entangling alliances, treaties, and human frailty threaten to create another cataclysm.

Creators
- Nicholas Meyer
  
  Author
Publisher

Penzler Publishers
Release date

August 27, 2024
Formats
- Kindle Book
- OverDrive Read
  - ISBN: 9781613165348
- EPUB ebook
  - ISBN: 9781613165348
  - File size: 8795 KB
Languages
- English
Reviews
- Library Journal
  
  May 1, 2024
  The Gold Dagger Award winner for the buzzy The Seven-Per-Cent Solution returns with his next Sherlock Holmes pastiche, sending Holmes and Watson across the Atlantic during WWI in hopes of stopping the dangerous plans of one of Holmes's enemies, a German spymaster. Prepub Alert.
  Copyright 2024 Library Journal
  
  Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- Publisher's Weekly
  
  June 24, 2024
  Holmes and Watson team up to boost England’s WWI efforts in screenwriter Meyer’s disappointing latest (after The Return of the Pharaoh). In 1916, Watson reunites with Holmes after spending a year treating soldiers who’ve returned from the front lines. Holmes, meanwhile, has continued working undercover to pump the imprisoned traitor Sir Roger Casement for information about German strategy. Casement tells Holmes that Germany plans to “starve England into surrender” via a prolonged U-boat campaign; he also says that a German foreign minister has a plan to ensure the U.S. doesn’t enter the war. A contact at the British secret service dispatches Holmes and Watson to the States to learn more; there, they uncover a plot involving an old nemesis of Holmes’s, and get tangled up in a pair of murders. Unfortunately, Meyer doesn’t focus on those crimes, opting instead to reframe Holmes as a Jason Bourne–style action hero. Meyer’s depiction of an aging, depressed Watson makes more of an impression, but in the end, this is too far-fetched for Holmes devotees and too run-of-the-mill for espionage fans. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary.
- Kirkus
  
  July 15, 2024
  As World War I rages, Holmes serves, solves, and spies, and Watson faithfully records. Fifty years after topping bestseller lists withThe Seven-Per-Cent Solution, which put Sherlock Holmes' drug addiction front and center, Meyer continues to offer his own puckishly provocative version of the legendary sleuth. In his sixth resuscitation of Holmes, sturdily narrated once more by Dr. John Watson, the detective is a war hero, a fighter for social justice, and something of a diplomat as well as a brilliant crime reconstructor who solves the baffling shipboard murder that provides a trans-Atlantic version of the traditional locked-room mystery. The tale begins in 1916, when Watson is treating casualties of World War I, in which Holmes valiantly served and was injured. They debate the case of Roger Casement, an Irish nationalist currently on trial in Britain for treason. Casement, like many other characters here, was a real historical figure. Meyer weaves him into the episodic narrative along with sly Alice Roosevelt Longworth, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Henry Fletcher, and several others, and includes vintage photos and documents as well. The Sherlockian mystery is solid and delightful on its own, but Meyer's portrait of this moment in history adds a surprising and fascinating bonus. An additional meta layer is provided by an imaginative introduction in the form of a letter Meyer receives from a Japanese industrialist, along with the pages of Watson's diary that account for the bulk of the novel. Ingenious international froth studded with historical tidbits.
  COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Booklist
  
  July 19, 2024
  June 1916. The height of the Great War. Dr. John Watson is occupied full-time with tending to the wounded; so the last person he expects to see is his old friend Sherlock Holmes. The detective shares that Germany has a top-secret scheme to win the war. The British Secret Service needs the two men to find out what Germany's plans are. Meyer, who's written several Holmes pastiches beginning with 1974's The Seven-Per-Cent-Solution (he's also directed some movies, including 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and 1979's Time After Time), is firing on all cylinders here. Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell is a thrilling, fast-paced, and dangerous story. Holmes and Watson are their usual selves, but we can tell that they are both feeling the weight of a nation's fate on their shoulders. Of all the Holmes novelists--and there are a lot of them--Meyer is one of the best, and it's wonderful to see these two characters back in action.
  COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.