Moriarty, by John Gardner -- A Book Review
Sherlock Holmes was known for many years as an
unstoppable detective, almost supernaturally intelligent who could solve
any case. However, every great protagonist needs an equally great
antagonist. In the case of Holmes, that antagonist was the devious
Professor James Moriarty.
Moriarty is back. It was thought that
he died in a momentous fight with his arch-rival, Holmes, but in fact
he merely went into hiding for a while. Moriarty travelled abroad,
finally returning to his "family" in London. His once-great criminal
empire has crumbled under the machinations of "Idle Jack" Idell, a crime
boss whose primary trade is in children for prostitution. Idell managed
to convince many of Moriarty's family that he was not coming back,
causing a shift in loyalties for many. In the midst of piecing his
massive crime family back together, Moriarty is faced with the daunting
task of rooting out a spy in his inner circle. All signs indicate that
the spy is one of his "Praetorian guard" made up of four extremely
dangerous men whom Moriarty has laid his trust.
When the
stories were first released, readers of Sherlock Holmes did not want to
accept that this ingenious hero was, in fact, fiction. Holmes' death
caused such an uproar that he was, under unlikely circumstances,
resurrected. Along with this same theme, Gardner presents his story as a
"non-fiction" chronicling of the life of Professor Moriarty based on
the professor's diaries. The book is complete with in-text notes which
serve to resolve the contradictions in the original Sherlock Holmes
stories, as well as explain away differences between those stories and
the one in this book.
Moriarty is the third in a proposed five books, preceded by The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty.
This is the first of these books I've read, having happened upon it in a
recent library trip. It seemed to do well as a standalone book, but I
have heard that Moriarty veers from the path of the previous books and
that there are considerable conflicts between the story of the first two
and this third.
Since I haven't read those other two, I can't
say anything personally about the continuity, though I can offer my
commentary about the book itself. I went into this story with little
expectation, having never heard of the author before, though I had hoped
for an interesting supplement to the Holmes stories I enjoyed so much
in my younger years.
For most, this book will likely not stand
up to expectation. The first 50-75 pages were rough, difficult to follow
and seemed thrown haphazardly together. Dialog between the characters
seemed stilted and stereotypical. As I read on, I did get into the story
a little better even though it started so slowly. The bulk of the book
was easy to read and progressed fairly steadily, except as mentioned
below.
The story itself was decent, though will undoubtedly
raise the hackles of some die-hard Holmesians for its varied take on the
story. The author does explain away much of this variation as
Moriarty's "personal bias" in his diaries or in a variety of other ways.
What bothered me most about the story is that there just isn't a whole
lot there. It starts slow, remains a simple plot throughout, and then
wraps up quickly in the last 40 pages.
Overall, this is not a
bad book for a bit of empty-headed reading on a lazy weekend. If you're
looking for any kind of literary stimulation, thrills or suspense, or
any other such perks of reading, you may be disappointed. I enjoyed this
book enough to check the library for the other two books to see if I
can piece together more of the story that I may have missed, though will
likely not pursue them if the library doesn't have them. My measure of a
good book is one that makes me feel, this book did bring a tear to my
eye once but otherwise really didn't do anything for me. It's not bad,
but certainly far from a gem.
