After the last of the Cthulhu Casebooks, Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea-Devils, was published last year, I thought I’d got to the end of James’s entertaining cross-genre series.
So, it was a lovely surprise to get this one arrive through the post – even though it’s a Christmas tale which has arrived before Halloween!
It is 1890 and Sherlock and his friend John Watson are approached by Eve Allerthorpe, whose family seat at Fellscar Keep in Yorkshire appears to be haunted by a demonic spirit – the sinister Black Thurrick, seen walking across the icy lake around the family home, and who leaves small parcels of birch tied together with twine as a sign that the recipient’s days are numbered. Understandably, this is driving Eve to distraction. She fears that it may be part of a plot to make her insane, for she stands to inherit a fortune on her 21st birthday in a few days, if she is sound in mind.
Such a cry for help means that Holmes and Watson agree to visit Eve in her home. The duo’s visit to Yorkshire soon makes them realise that (of course!) the situation is more complicated than at first expected. As the Allerthorpe family gather at Fellscar Keep for their traditional family Christmas, it is clear that something odd is happening. When a member of the Allerthorpe household is found dead, which suggests that there may be more to this than initially thought…
There’s something special about a Victorian Christmas, isn’t there? Thoughts of Charles Dickens, huge meals, men in top hats, gaslights and falling snow are (for me, anyway) as about as traditional Christmas as it gets. Dickens himself, of course, knew how to use these iconic ideas to good effect and James does well to incorporate the same images in this novel. We begin Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon with the chase of a Father Christmas through a crowded London department store, and end with a Christmas feast worthy of A Christmas Carol.
In terms of time, Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon is set between the first and second of the Cthulhu Casebook stories, and as a result this one is perhaps more related to the Gothic ghost stories of Victorian/Edwardian England than Cthulhu. It does read nicely as a standalone, although Holmes and Watson do mention other cases along the way to put things into context.
To me, Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon felt like a cross between a Dickensian mystery and an Agatha Christie crime novel, with a touch of Bronte’s Wuthering Heights for the harsh Northern setting and William Hope-Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost Finder for things that go bump in the night.
It also helps that the setting is terrific as well. There’s lots of dashing around the snowy environment where most of the book is set, across lake ice and snow-white slopes and in a wonderfully Gothic castle. At the same time, to counterbalance this, there’s roaring fires and good food and drink mentioned in detail. James does well to balance the two by going all Agatha Christie in a grand setting of oak-lined libraries and drawing rooms and cigars and brandy after meals. On a genre note, there’s a nice nod to Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton stories, which it would be wrong of me to spoil.
The gathering of the Allerthorpe clan for Christmas does create a wide variety of potential murder suspects, which Holmes and Watson do well to deal with. The initially frosty reception from the inner circle of the household towards our detective duo is admirably portrayed, but the characterisation allows us to warm to some as the plot proceeds.
The biggest plus in this novel, and indeed the series, is that the tone and style of writing makes this one seem like a Conan Doyle novel, albeit for a 21st century readership. The prose is right and Holmes’ and Watson’s actions are both realistic and appropriate. The explanation of the processes by which Holmes makes his deductions is a joy to read.
All in all, like Lovegrove’s other Sherlock novels, Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon is a deceptively easy read that draws you in and, once started, I found difficult to put down.
One last point – the cover and the format of the print edition is lovely. Removing the dustcover shows an embossed cover and spine that would make the book look good sitting nicely on any reader’s shelf. It’s not essential, but it does create the impression that this is a quality book the reader would like to keep.
This is one that I can see me dipping into on a perennial basis. I’ve already added it to my pile of Christmassy reads for next year.
“Yuletide is the time we commune with our friends and loved ones. It is the time when we banish demons, lay ghosts to rest, re-establish bonds with those who are dear to us, and reaffirm the good in the world.”
So: may I be perhaps the first to wish you Merry Christmas?! This one is thoroughly recommended, to be read perhaps as the snow falls and the nights draw in. This is one you may keep coming back to.
Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Demon
By James Lovegrove
Published by Titan Books, October 2019
384 pages
ISBN: 978 178 565 8020
Review by Mark Yon
