From Publishers Weekly
The third of the versatile Meyer's canny Conan Doyle pastiches (following the bestselling Seven-Per-Cent Solution and The West End Horror ) takes Sherlock Holmes into new and fanciful terrain with an elaborate romp that embroils him with Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera. Moonlighting incognito as a violinist with the Paris Opera, Holmes again encounters American singer Irene Adler, the only woman who ever outwitted him. She enlists his aid to protect a young soprano from the mysterious and increasingly macabre shenanigans around her--and the game's afoot. Purists may balk at Meyer's rather voluble, emotional Sherlock, but adepts and novices alike will relish the author's adroit mimicry of the narrative conventions of Victorian melodrama and his eye for period detail, including his trademark conceit of slipping historical figures--here Degas, Freud and Leroux himself, among others--into the margins of his tale. Doyle's austere detective sometimes seems a little at sea amidst the florid atmospherics of fin de siecle Paris, and Meyer's casual plotting (piggybacking on the over-familiar Phantom outline) sinks on occasion into travelogue and affords Holmes little opportunity to flex his deductive muscles. But overall, Meyer treats his readers to a lively and entertaining, if undemanding ride. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Kirkus Reviews
Fresh (or stale) from his encounters with Freud (The Seven-Per- Cent Solution, 1974) and Jack the Ripper (The West End Horror, 1976), Sherlock Holmes comes up against the Phantom of the Opera, with mixed results. Disguised as a Norwegian violinist who replaces a performer at the Paris Opera who's been frightened off by the Phantom, Holmes is blackmailed by the woman, Irene Adler, into contracting to protect soprano Christine Daa‚ (who's so innocent that she believes the mysterious singing master who calls himself ``Nobody'' is the Angel of Music) from her ghostly patron. At first the Phantom seems intent on terrorizing everyone but La Daa‚: her replacement as Faust's Marguerite, the oblivious incoming directors, even the new woman who tends the Grand Tier left boxes. No sooner has Holmes guessed at the Phantom's identity, though, than he spirits La Daa‚ off to the cavernous Opera basement for the requisite--and anticlimactic--finale. Should appeal to those fans (and there will be plenty) who can overlook the undistinguished stylistic pastiche--Holmes rather unwisely narrates this lost adventure himself--the footnotes that explain every last Holmesian reference, and the unfortunate poverty of the plot. (First printing of 50,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
