'Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson have tickets to the newly arrived Egyptian Circus. Holmes is puzzled by his brother Mycroft's cryptic gift but is intrigued enough to attend the next production.
'The performers, dressed as wondrous half-animal, half-human gods from Egyptian mythology, display superhuman agility and stunts. But they speak no Arabic, sequester themselves in the stables after each show and take orders from a mysterious ring master who is yet to be seen. And then one of the performers is murdered.
'Holmes's enquires lead him to Montebank Manor, the home of the beautiful and secretive socialite Dorian Gray. As Holmes digs deeper, he learns Gray is hiding much more than his involvement in a murder. It's a darkly fantastical tale of lies, experimentation, hypnosis and wicked ambition.'
The Classified Dossier series has quickly become one of my favourite Sherlock Holmes series to date. Christian Klaver does a fantastic job at not just introducing the world of the supernatural to the Sherlock Holmes universe, but draws upon inspiration and characters from other classic novels to do so; creating a fantastic and ever increasingly large shared universe.
This volume begins with Sherlock Holmes receiving a mysterious letter containing tickets to the circus. However, it doesn't take Holmes long to figure out that his brother, Mycroft, had someone send the tickets to him and wishes for him to investigate the circus. Unfortunately, with Mycroft mysteriously out of the country, he has no way of finding out what it is his brother wants him to see. As such, Holmes and Watson head off to the new Egyptian Circus in Hyde Park and watch a truly spectacular show. But some things don't quite add up, especially as Watson is able to smell animals around the circus, yet none were used in the show itself.
Further investigation leads to a startling discovery about the true nature of performers, one that shows the two of them that they're dealing with things outside of the realm of the natural. Their investigation leads them across London, to the home of the unusual socialite Dorian Gray, who has been acting as the ringleader for the unusual circus. The further the two of them dig the more unusual evidence they begin to collect, and they soon realise that they may have discovered something truly dangerous.
As the title of this particular volume of the series gives away, the character of Dorian Gray is introduced into Klaver's world. However, if you read the title and think that you know what kind of story you're going to be reading you're going to be very much mistaken. Just as with the previous volume, Sherlock Holmes and MR Hyde, this is not simply a re-telling of the original story with Holmes and Watson injected into events. There are times that this book bares almost no resemblance to The Picture of Dorian Gray, especially as Klaver sneakily includes another novel from around this era too that derails the Dorian Gray expectations in the most wonderful way.
Klaver draws from multiple other works for his plot here, and it adds some superb twists and turns into things. There's a reveal early on in the book that may give it away to some readers, but it wasn't until a particularly distinct line of dialogue was spoken that the connection was made in my head and I realised what other works were being folded in. It was an incredibly fun moment, and one that increased my excitement and enjoyment of the book. And the fact that that too was twisted and changed in new ways, brought into the extended narrative that Klaver had been working on for two other volumes, led to some wonderful pay offs further down the line.
As with previous volumes the writing here is great, things are very faced pace, with Klaver packing a lot of story and action into the books pages that ends up feeling like you've had a lot of bang for your buck. Luckily, the focus on action and story doesn't mean that the characters don't get focus as a trade-off. Holmes, Watson, some new friends, and some returning ones, all get a chance to shine and to do something important that helps to drive the narrative forward and highlights why the ever expanding cast of characters being added to Holmes' little group of paranormal investigators and fighters just adds further richness to things.
Whenever I come to the end of one of the books in this series I find myself hoping for more, and trying to guess what other stories and characters might be drawn into the next entry. And this time is no different. I was disappointed that it was over, and was thinking eagerly to the next. Hopefully this volume won't be the last, as I really want to see what Klaver does next.
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