The Giant Rat of Sumatra

Frankly, I liked the first half of the book the most when Dr. Watson arrived at the Allistair estate, I started to lose interest. I appreciated the gothic horror element to this book, but the second half became a somewhat bland tour through elite-country-living in the nineteenth century that overstayed its welcome in the ending. Although, I did like the climax and seeing how vulnerable Holmes and Watson became and why they maybe did not want to include this story in the oeuvre of their adventures. The ending did go on forever though.
Overall, I did like this book, but I felt the story was overwritten for what it was; a Sherlockian mystery with a gothic horror element that is unfortunately explained away at the end. It was sort of an show more anti-climax for me (not necessarily a bad thing but here it was a little disappointing). Would I recommend this one? I don’t know. I wasn’t mad that I read it. I wasn’t bored throughout the whole thing. Well, if you feel the need for a Sherlock Holmes story, I guess this could scratch that itch. show less

This is a solid pastiche. The tone of the narration is dead on. I'm not sure I wholly agree with the choice of villain (and I don't mean the rat). But you would have to look hard to find a better Sherlock Holmes pastiche.

This is one of the better Sherlock Holmes pastiches, of which there are hundreds. The giant rat is a case mentioned by the original author, Doyle, but never written up for publication. Author Boyer picks up the topic and creates a credible account of the story. It is a good, quick read with the requisite character detail for Holmes and Watson and worthy of any Holmes fan.

I was hoping for a fun story. This was not fun at all.