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Overview
Probably the most infamous story in the Sherlock Holmes canon is “The Final Problem” as it relates the facts of the death/murder of the master detective at Reichenbach Falls. On May 4, 1891, the detective met his archenemy Professor Moriarty on a ledge above the falls; the two became locked in a titanic hand-to-hand struggle before both tumbled over the precipice, presumably to their deaths, as witnessed afar by Dr.Watson. The outcry against the death of such a popular character was so great that in 1901 Conan Doyle was forced to give in to the pressure of his fan mail. He resurrected the detective by claiming that Holmes had managed to grab a tuft of grass during the fall into the “dreadful cauldron” and so had lived to solve another mystery.
But what really happened that infamous day at Reichenbach Falls and why did Holmes disappear in the aftermath? And what of the infamous Moriarty? How did a noble mathematician become the Napoleon of Crime?
The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls provides these answers and more. It turns out that the events were not just witnessed by Watson but by another young detective of the Victorian era—Carnacki the Ghost Finder. Carnacki rescues an amnesiac gentleman from the base of the falls only to find himself and his companion doggedly pursued by an evil mastermind whose shadowy powers may reach from the bloody crime scenes of White Chapel to far beyond the grave.
Filled with Holmesian lore and thrilling encounters evocative of Doyle’s work in the Strand magazine, The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls will undoubtedly join the ranks of such successful Holmesian pastiches as The Seven Percent Solution, The West End Horror, and Murder by Decree.
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Editorials
Publishers Weekly
King's muddled alternate version of the epic final battle between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty teams the Baker Street sleuth with William Hope Hodgson's Thomas Carnacki, a detective who often contends with the supernatural. Carnacki happens to be present in Switzerland in 1891 to witness the struggle between Holmes and Moriarty above the Reichenbach Falls recounted in Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Final Problem." After Carnacki and an attractive young woman, Anna Schmidt, rescue an amnesiac Holmes from the rapids, the trio dodge bullets from the professor, who turns out to be Anna's father. As Holmes gradually regains his faculties, Moriarty chases them across the continent. Flashbacks to the master criminal's youth offer a surprising if gimmicky explanation for his turn to evil. Despite the author's obvious affection for the characters, he fails to provide a plot that does justice to his intriguing premise. (July)
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