Sherlock Holmes and the Long Acre Vampire

Rating:
Summary: Brisk and affectionate Holmes pastiche
Review: Author Val Andrews is -in addition to being a prolific author of short pastiche Holmes novels -an actor and an accomplished magician .It is doubtless why the books which feature theatrical backgrounds and characters are the liveliest entries in a middling series and this book is a good example of the type of book I mean.
Its setting is late Victorian London ,a city in thrall to Bram Stoker's novel Dracula ;the book has caused a sensation and none other than noted actor-manager Sir Henry Irving is staging a play based on the book and is starring as the sanguinary Count.
Unfortunately a series of murders takes place in Long Acre ,near the Lyceum Theatre where Irving is plying his trade and the murders are set up to look like vampire attacks -puncture marks on the neck ,pasty faced victims etc .Holmes is engaged by Irving to look into the matter as he fears he may be blamed.Holmes quickly establishes that human agency is behind the deaths and that someone is setting the great actor up.
Before we find out who we are treated to a brisk if implausible plot which sees Holmes impersonating Irving impersonating Dracula
and a variation on the unmasking of the culprit which takes place on the stage of the Theatre Royal in Brighton .
Its flambouyant and as befits the subject theatrical in style and entertaining if you dont think too closely about the credibility of it all.
It seems to be ending on a valedictory note with the great detective preparing for retirement and Lestrade actually retiring .As in the earlier book on the Society of Seven we see Watson voicing doubts as to the efficaciousness of the death penalty ,a note which seems at odds with both the character and the Holmes canon.
I do not consider the intrusion of modern authorial sensibility to be acceptable in an authentic pastiche and this tub thumping is annoying .
Okay book and series devotees will enjoy

Rating:
Summary: The Play's the Thing...
Review: For some reason Val Andrews, while a successful writer in the Sherlock Holmes canon has never really written anything that quite satisfied me. I'm not sure if it's the shortness of his stories (although Doyle certainly wrote even shorter stories) or some peculiar trick or usage of language and writing style, but they are never quite as convincing as they should be. Now that I think of it, perhaps the narrative is a bit more ponderous and the action less crisp that of Doyle's.

In any case, "The Longacre Vampire" is better than average. Simultaneously with the opening of Sir Henry Irving's adaptation of Dracula a series of murders starts which have every appearance of being done by a vampire. Holmes is brought in by the actor/producer to help resolve the murders, which are seriously affecting ticket sales. While it takes the indomitable Sherlock little time to prove that the corpses died of a broken neck rather than exsanguination, it takes far more time for Holmes to untie all the subterfuge and reveal the true perpetrator of the crimes.

Besides the immortal Holmes and Watson only Sholto Lestrade and Sir Henry are fleshed out enough to be considered real characters. The rest of the book is peopled by the regular stereotypes of British theater and law enforcement. Given the book's shortness, this is to be expected. Even so the book provides many interesting glimpses of theatre life in London and Brighton. Sir Henry is quite a piece of work, and Andrews' Lestrade much more sympathetic than Doyle's own approach.

The truth is that very few writers can duplicate Doyle's ability to create a story out of thin air and paint characters with minimalist brush strokes. Like Sax Rohmer, Doyle has the rare skill of building an imaginary atmosphere which seems more solid than our own reality. Val Andrews is to be complimented for managing an effective reinvention of past glories and so providing a diverting time to those of us who still delight in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Rating:
Summary: Low-key, stagebound mystery
Review: Here's the latest in a long series of Holmes pastiches by British journalist, theater historian and magician Val Andrews. Like a number of his recent Holmes mysteries, this one touches on the turn-of-the-century British entertainment industry, and turns on a real historical character, the legendary actor Sir Henry Irving. Sir Henry is mounting a new play very loosely based on the Bram Stoker novel DRACULA, published only a few years before. (It is more than strange that Stoker himself doesn't appear in the story, given his association with Sir Henry). A series of senseless murders then occur, crudely staged to give the impression that a vampire like the one depicted on stage by Sir Henry is responsible.

Well, there's really no action, and not much mystery--- the most obvious suspect, after a few red herrings are dragged across the trail, turns out to be... you guessed it... guilty. The novel ends on an odd, elegiac note as Holmes, Sir Henry and Inspector Lestrade hold a dinner marking their mutual retirements.

If you've enjoyed previous pastiches by Val Andrews (or his pseudonym Andrew North), you'll probably enjoy this one. If you are unfamiliar with Andrews' previous work, you may find this thin (125 pages) novel rather thin in all respects in comparison with pastiches by other authors. For my own part, I enjoy the relation between Holmes and Watson depicted by Andrews... it seems to owe a debt simultaneously to Conan Doyle and to the long series of Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce movies. And it's a treat here to see Holmes as a stage performer... even if he needs a lot of prompting.