#BookReview-‘Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu:The Adventure Of The Deadly Dimension’ by Lois H Gresh

About the book…

A series of grisly murders rocks London. At each location, only a jumble of bones remains of the deceased, along with a bizarre sphere covered in strange symbols. The son of the latest victim seeks the help of Sherlock Holmes and his former partner, Dr. John Watson.

They discover the common thread tying together the murders. Bizarre geometries, based on ancient schematics, enable otherworldly creatures to enter our dimension, seeking to wreak havoc and destruction.The persons responsible are gaining so much power that even Holmes’s greatest enemy fears them-to the point that he seeks an unholy alliance.

My thanks to Titan Books for my gifted copy of ‘‘Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu:The Adventure of the Deadly Dimensions’ which is out in paperback on 4th July!

A confession-I see a lot of people on bookstagram, a lot of authors whom I greatly admire ,talking about the debt of honour that the modern horror /fantasy genre owes to HP Lovecraft . But I just don’t get it.

So when I was offered a copy of this book to review, being a HUGE Sherlock fan,this seemed like a good way to try and understand the attraction of the Cthulhu mythos.

First off, spoiler alert!

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Still here?Ok!

Sherlock does not face off with Cthulhu here. It is the first in a trilogy , and sets up the implacable Holmes, with his absolute , resolute steadfastness on believing the truth of his own scientific mind against the inconceivable notions of otherworldy beings.

However, the facts of the matter are that mangled, decimated corpses are turning up all over London, bones arranged in strategic formations accompnaied by odd symbologies. In a city reeling from Jack The Ripper’s exploits, this is causing panic and unease. The details are gruesome and perhaps not strictly Holmesian, and I feel that dedicated fans may object to the rough handling of the character by Gresh.

Some of the tropes remain but the overwhelming feeling whilst reading the book is that it is an American interpretation of the Holmes/Watson relationship. That sounds elitist and snobby, I don’t mean to create that impression, but if you read the book I think you’ll understand where I am coming from (think the propaganda movies of ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror’ and you’ll get where I am going with this)

As a self confessed Holmesian-whore, I will happily read pretty much any interpretation of this character, I love how this era and the characters of Holmes and Watson, especially when dealing with the supernatural .

He steadfastly refuses to believe in the supernatural (see the short story ‘The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire’) so in this tale, he has to rationalise the Order of Dagon and their attempts to open portals to other worlds. This is done through scientific methodology and the appliance of physics and maths to the problem.

It works as a stand alone novel,and as a reader who is unfamiliar with Cthulhu , I appreciate that I may not have picked up things that other readers may have-I am here for the Holmes/Watson partnership-but as series opener it is interesting, accessible,possibly a bit over long,however, I am looking forward to reading Books 2 and 3! And I might pick up some of HP Lovecraft afterwards…

About the author…

LOIS H. GRESH is the New York Times Bestselling Author (6 times) and USA Today Bestselling Author (thrillers) of 30 books and more than 65 short stories, as well as the editor of anthologies ‘Innsmouth Nightmares’ and ‘Dark Fusions’. Her work has been published in 22 languages. Her latest books are ‘Sherlock vs Cthulhu:The Adventure Of The Innsmouth Mutations’ (Titan Books, 2019), ‘Sherlock vs Cthulhu:The Adventure Of The Neural Psychoses (Titan Books, 2018), and ‘‘Sherlock vs Cthulhu:The Adventure Of The Deadly Dimensions ‘(Titan Books, 2017). For 5 years, Lois was a staff book reviewer at scifi.com (now SYFY.com, the Science Fiction Cable Channel), and her work has been on national/international award ballots 8 times. She is a frequent Guest of Honor Author at large genre conventions and has appeared on television series such as The History Channel’s Ancient Aliens and Batman Tech

Links-http://www.loisgresh.com/

Twitter @lois_gresh

@TitanBooks