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Summary
Summary
In this brilliantly crafted pastiche, Stephen Kendrick brings Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown together in an unprecedented collaboration on a singularly shocking murder case. It is Christmas Day, 1902, and a priest's mutilated body has been found in a London church that is hosting a secret interfaith meeting to discuss the possibility of a Parliament of World Religions. A summons from the Prime Minister plunges Holmes into a case with international, political, and ecclesiastical complications. Untrampled snow surrounding the church suggests that the murderer remains within and that he is, presumably, one of the leaders of the world's great faiths. Throughout the night, as more deaths are discovered, Holmes and Dr. Watson follow one false lead after another. But with his legendary astuteness, Holmes manages to wrap the case up in less than twenty-four hours--or so it seems. Two weeks later, Father Brown, the meek young priest-translator, pays a call at Baker Street to reveal "a few loose ends." The intersection of religion and politics, faith and sin, enmity and forgiveness--these themes are subtly interwoven into this fast-paced mystery that is filled with classic intrigue.
Author Notes
Stephen Kendrick is the author of "Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes". He is the Parish Minister of the Universalist Church of West Hartford, Connecticut, where he lives.
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Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
With an ingenuous dismissal of other Sherlock Holmes pastiches as, well, mere pastiches, Kendrick sets about a taut reworking of the venerable "locked room" mystery. His tale of murder in the cathedral, he insists, is genuine: a lost account from the one true chronicler, Dr. Watson. Kendrick also dusts off another of sleuthdom's icons, Father Brown. The mix works. Though the narrative voice little evokes that of the Good Doctor, Kendrick knows and respects his source materials. A cleric himself, he also knows church history. Not only does he use little remembered figures (such as the heretic Pelagius) and events (such as the World's Parliament of Religions in 1893), but he integrates them so well with the mystery that the reader pores over the historical minutiae for possible clues. Representatives from each of the world's major religions gather secretly in a London church to plan for an important ecumenical conference; then one of them murders his Anglican host in most unholy fashion. Holmes and Father Brown have but one night to solve the grizzly murder, aided by such stalwarts as Inspector Lestrade and Mycroft Holmes. In the light of the past century's history and, particularly, recent events, there is a profoundly tragic aspect to Kendrick's plotting and his roster of suspects Roman Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu and Islamic who join together in the hope of establishing common ground. A century later, such vision seems all but trampled under. (Nov. 13) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Given the resourcefulness of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, it was only a matter of time before Holmes, whose posthumous career has paired him with figures from Sigmund Freud to Jack the Ripper, met Father Brown. After an entertaining but detachable prologue in which Holmes neatly solves the disappearance of a storied ruby from his old Oxford college, he returns to Baker Street on Christmas 1902 to an urgent summons from Inspector Lestrade. Inspired by the example of the 1893 Chicago Exposition, the Archbishop of Canterbury has arranged a secret meeting of some of the world's leading clergymen-Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist-in St. Thomas's Church, Kensington, in preparation for a possible World's Parliament of Religions. Now that the mutilated body of St. Thomas rector Rev. Paul Appel, has been found in the church, all the illustrious guests have become suspects in his murder. Suavely overriding the visitors' protestations that they never could have had anything to do with such an outrage, Holmes-with strategic assistance from Father Brown, on hand as a translator for the Vatican representative-methodically unveils their deceptions in the course of a wild Christmas night as he wades through a further series of murderous assaults to unmask a clever, sacrilegious plot. Universalist minister Kendrick (Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes, not reviewed) has scant opportunity to bring his eminent suspects to life, but he shows an intriguingly complex Holmes, rough edges softened by a healthy respect for religion, but still active enough for the requisite heroics.
Library Journal Review
The influence of the Sherlock Holmes stories is so pervasive that each year sees more critical essays, parodies, pastiches, or other ways of continuing the Holmes canon. Two novels are the latest to surface, each with its own gimmick. In Night Watch, the great Holmes meets G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown. Kendrick (Holy Clues) stays safely on Holmes's home turf of London, and the tone of the book is closer to the original, with an appropriately sinister atmosphere. Holmes (and his brother Mycroft) and Watson are called to a convention of clerics of the world's major religions, where someone has murdered the host. Throughout the night, more deaths are discovered, but in the space of 24 hours, Holmes apparently solves the case. But then, two weeks later, Father Brown, in his quiet, self-effacing way, provides the real solution. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.