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Searching... Dallas Public Library | YA FICTION - LANE | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Lane, A. 2011 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
It is the summer of 1868, and Sherlock Holmes is fourteen. On break from boarding school, he is staying with eccentric strangers--his uncle and aunt--in their vast house in Hampshire. When two local people die from symptoms that resemble the plague, Holmes begins to investigate what really killed them, helped by his new tutor, an American named Amyus Crowe. So begins Sherlock's true education in detection, as he discovers the dastardly crimes of a brilliantly sinister villain of exquisitely malign intent.
Author Notes
Andrew Lane is the author of the Young Sherlock Holmes series of young adult novels. He has also written numerous spin-off novels based on the BBC sci-fi television series Doctor Who , as well as definitive guides to Babylon 5 and the Wallace and Grommit films, and is the author of The Bond Files: An Unofficial Guide to the World's Greatest Secret Agent . He lives in Dorset, England.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-Sherlock Holmes, 14, is expecting a quiet summer, relaxing with his family after a difficult term at school. However, political upheaval in India, his mother's illness, and brother Mycroft's position in the Foreign Office result in Sherlock being sent to distant relatives instead. Adapting to life at Holmes Manor in Farnham, he makes friends with a village ruffian and is soon given an American tutor to keep him out of mischief. When Sherlock and Amyus Crowe, the tutor, discover a body covered with mysterious swellings, they are thrown into a conspiracy of chemicals, knives, and money. Over the course of his investigation, Sherlock is kidnapped twice by pale and crippled Baron Maupertuis, once after a brutal boxing match, and the second time while with beautiful Virginia Crowe, daughter of Amyus. In their final confrontation, Sherlock and Virginia discover the Baron's plot to bring down the whole of the British Empire. Lane successfully blends the traditional Holmesian confidence with the teen's awkward self-consciousness. The vulnerability of the character is well illustrated through his relationship with Mycroft, as well as his friendship with Matty, the young orphaned longboat operator. While the crush on Virginia seems a bit shoehorned in, her character does provide some needed humor. Occasionally the action overwhelms the investigative components, but the narrative still flows smoothly. A menacing villain and an unexpected twist make for a thoroughly engaging read that will keep readers turning pages. Now, it's just a matter of waiting for the next tale.-Joel Shoemaker, formerly at South East Junior High School, Iowa City, IA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lane (The Bond Files, for adults) doesn't quite hit the mark in this British novel (authorized by the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle) that launches the Sherlock Holmes: The Legend Begins series, about the detective's life as a teenager. Staying with his aunt and uncle while on his school's break, Sherlock has little to entertain or enlighten himself besides his American tutor, Amyus Crowe. When a runaway named Matthew witnesses a bizarre murder and Sherlock discovers another dead body in the woods, the teens seek out the truth. On their adventures, they encounter a mysteriously evil housekeeper, beekeepers, and a ludicrously crippled criminal mastermind. Younger readers will appreciate the constant action and danger, but those already familiar with Holmes may find it hard to reconcile Lane's portrayal of an uncertain if perceptive teenager with the trademark inscrutability of the man he will become. (That said, early references to beekeeping and Sherlock's future drug addiction are nice touches, and Lane clearly did his research.) However, the inanity of the over-the-top villain (and his plan) undercuts the thrill of the adventure. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Explaining in an author's note that Conan Doyle left plenty of room for someone to imagine his famed creation's childhood, Lane posits that the detective solved his first case one summer when circumstances require him to stay with some elderly relations in the country rather than with his father (in India) or his brother Mycroft (Foreign Office, London). Two men die from what evidence suggests is a plague; it honors both the Holmes canon and the interests of bloodthirsty young readers that the cause is in fact killer bees. That solved, fourteen-year-old Sherlock still has to catch the miscreants, and in this he is aided by scrappy streetwise sidekick Matty Arnatt and his tutor Amyus Crowe, a friend of Mycroft's hailing from Wild West Albuquerque and skilled in the art of detection. Although there isn't much in everyboy hero Sherlock to suggest the peculiar man he would grow up to be, and while the book is more thrill-packed action-movie than cool deductive mystery, Holmes fans will delight in numerous in-jokes, and adventure readers will thrill to the high-stakes and suspenseful storytelling. roger Sutton (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This first in a new series about Sherlock Holmes as a teenager finds the dismayed hero taken by his brother Mycroft to stay with a stuffy uncle in the country for his summer school holiday. Sherlock and his orphaned friend, Matty, probe two strange deaths associated with the appearance of a mysterious cloud. One of the strengths of this book is the immediacy of actionbeginning chapters don't weigh readers down with details but introduce necessary clues and facts woven skillfully into the text. After the scene is thoroughly set, the plot takes off like a rocket, constantly building suspense to a shockingly violent climax and over-the-top conclusion in which justice prevails over evil. The main characters are well drawn, but the villains are underdeveloped caricatures whose evil is unmitigated by human qualities. A rollicking good read, this book will offer a solid introduction to the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for younger teens.It also offers enjoyable insight into how Sherlock Holmes became the future investigative wizard for established fans of the ultimate detective.(Mystery/suspense. 13-17)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Before he was the detective whose steel-trap mind made him the curse of criminals, Sherlock Holmes was a teenager, brushing up on his powers of deduction and becoming the curse of one very nasty criminal indeed. This series introduces a 14-year-old Sherlock who's been left at his uncle's estate during the holidays. A new friend, a clever tutor, and the tutor's pretty daughter aren't enough to keep Sherlock out of trouble (well, actually, they're part of the trouble) when a mysterious cloud and several unfortunate deaths draw him into a malevolent plotter's web. This British import (the first teen series to be granted official endorsement from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's literary estate) has punch some literal and purpose. The story sags a bit in the middle, but the rousing, almost fantastical conclusion will set readers up for the next installment. Clever packaging gets optimum appeal for a book that can't count on all kids knowing the esteemed detective. The young Sherlock on the cover looks like a waistcoat-clad Justin Bieber.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
BY the time we're 14, most of us have few accomplishments to our name: passing algebra, playing goalie on a soccer team, stealing a first kiss, if we're lucky. That about covers it. Meanwhile, in "Death Cloud," by Andrew Lane, Sherlock Holmes has managed, at the age of 14, to quell a possible outbreak of bubonic plague, duel a French baron and win the affections of a rambunctious American girl. What an overachiever. When the Sherlock Holmes character first appeared, in 1887, he was 33, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle left few clues about his childhood, family or personal history. We know, from the four novels and 56 short stories that Conan Doyle wrote about Holmes, that his hero had an older brother named Mycroft, that his mother was of French descent, that he went to "University" - Oxford? Cambridge? - and . . . well, that's about it. Here, Lane supplies Holmes's missing teenage years. And what adventuresome years they were. "Death Cloud" begins with Holmes feeling lonely and unpopular at the Deepdene School for Boys. With his father in an India-bound military regiment and his mother vaguely "unwell," Holmes is sent to spend the summer with a cruel aunt and uncle whom he has never met. While staying at the family's country manor, Holmes comes across a mystery: Two victims of what appears to be the bubonic plague are discovered after witnesses report seeing a terrifying "cloud of smoke" pass over their bodies. With the aid of his tutor, Amyus Crowe, and his sole friend, an urchin named Matty, Holmes is off to investigate his very first case, showing how the precocious teenager becomes the legendary Sherlock Holmes, the world's most influential consulting detective. Lane's command of what will one day become Holmes's signature methods is remarkable, and the lessons Holmes learns here are ones any admirer of his later adventures will recognize: "If you haven't got enough facts to come to a conclusion, then you go out and get more facts," he is instructed at one point. "The collection of proper information depends primarily on the proper phrasing of the question," he learns at another. We see Holmes bare-knuckle box, analyze handwriting and develop a fascination with bees - all skills that will later become important in his career. Lane is attempting a curious feat: to update and adapt Sherlock Holmes for a new generation, much the way Guy Ritchie has done with a swash-buckling Sherlock on screen. But kids have been reading the original Holmes stories with delight since the 1880s. Indeed, Conan Doyle frequently bemoaned his fate at being considered a writer of mere "boys' books" - he'd meant to write for adults and was chagrined to find his stories frequently reviewed among the teenage adventures of the day. However, while Conan Doyle was suspicious of his younger fans, Lane courts them (and the publisher has put a brazenly Bieber-like figure on the cover in case we miss the point). There is something ironic then in this novel's claim to being "the first teen series endorsed by the Conan Doyle estate," and in any case, the Conan Doyle estate no longer controls the copyright to Sherlock Holmes as strictly as it once did. Yet, in the end, the novel strives to rescue Holmes from the prejudices of his creator, and thereby expand the pool of Holmes devotees. For that we can all be grateful. Graham Moore's first novel, "The Sherlockian," was published in December.