Trotz einiger Längen am Ende doch 4 Sterne ( )

This was an interesting book but I wasn't fond of the writing style. I'm sure the author wasn't to give it the feel of a Victorian novel or of the Sherlock Holmes stories, I did love the descriptions but the action scenes were bogged down by all the verbiage. The build to the big battle left me wanting.

The story is about Arthur Conan Doyle who in trying to publish his book The Dark Brotherhood, gets pulled into a world of mystery, intrigue, supernatural, and evil.

You see how the man he meets, Jack Sparks, will become the basis for Sherlock Holmes and Sparks' brother for Moriarity. Even going over the falls.

The book was good enough that I kept reading. The author clearly did his research. The cockney characters are great and add so much flavor to the story.

I think the book would make a great movie because the descriptions would be pared down and the action amped up. ( )

A fast-paced breathless thriller that borrows some bits from Sherlock Holmes, with Arthur Conan Doyle as the protagonist. I don't normally re-read my books, but this one will be an exception. I missed many references buried in its pages. The horror was tolerable for wimpy me! ( )

Truly action-packed, heart-felt adventure mystery filled with mythology, philosophy, the occult, magic, and evil. Arthur and Jack are educated, intelligent and capable 'good' guys. With much help from Larry and Barry Jack saves Arthur's life from the efforts of a wealthy and violent cabal planning on taking control of England and probably the world.

Frightening appearances of 'Stepford Wives' type characters chase Jack and Arthur through underground tunnels, museum storage areas, open fields from city to country. One of the best 'good against evil' books I've read in a while.

Super smart and scary read with a very chilling ending.

Mark Frost is best known as the writer on Twin Peaks, and he brings a similarly twisted vision to this wonderful novel set in a slightly skewed Victorian England.

The protagonist is Arthur Conan Doyle, still a doctor, and with no inkling of his creation of the worlds greatest detective.

That's before he gets involved with a secret service agent with amazing deductive skills, a penchant for morphine, and a twisted, brilliant older brother.

This may sound like a Holmes pastiche, but Frost's imagination takes it way beyond that. We get a flight through the British Museum vaults, chased by the undead. We get a visit to Whitby abbey in the dead of night alongside an Irish writer named Bram Stoker who gets the idea of his life on the trip, and we get a glimpse of what might have happened if Victorian ingenuity had taken a slightly different turn into Zombie armies and vast, impersonal factories.

All that, and more literary references than you can shake a stick at, alongside pathos, friendship, betrayal and loss.

Frost is a fine, intelligent writer, with a unique vision, and this is his best work. ( )