Sherlock Holmes and the Unholy Trinity

The Odyssey of Sherlock Holmes, Book 1

If you love Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original, you’ll love this gripping new tale from the world of Sherlock Holmes.

Amanda BA, a colorfully dressed Bedouin brandishing a sword, interrupts Holmes and Watson at their breakfast table. He brings a cryptic warning: stay out of the affairs of his people, or face the consequences.

Just as the detecting duo begin unravelling that mystery, they are summoned to Vatican City. Cardinal Tosca, the Pope’s right-hand man, has been murdered at his desk, and his translation of an ancient scroll has been stolen from the Papal palace.

The great detective and his faithful Watson find themselves battling a fog of secrecy. Rumors swirl about a lost gospel and mysterious packages from Egypt, and whispers of a clandestine group known only as the "Unholy Trinity" grow louder. What was the Bedouin intruder so desperate to hide? Why was Cardinal Tosca’s scroll worth killing for?

To find the answer, Holmes and Watson must go further than they have ever gone before to uncover a centuries old conspiracy. Does this mystery run too deep for even the world’s most famous detective to unravel? In the first part of the carefully crafted first of the Odyssey of Sherlock Holmes Trilogy, Paul D. Gilbert sends this beloved British sleuth from his native Baker Street over land and sea to solve new mysteries.

©2019 Paul Gilbert (P)2023 MX Publishing

Entertaining

This is a better than average Holmes pastiche , although I found the story theme fascinating it was a bit murky following all the different characters and suspects. Over I gave it a 4 star rating though.

An Excellent Novel Length Work

This first volume in a series by Paul D. Gilbert entitled "The Odyssey of Sherlock Holmes" is, overall, an excellent foray into novel-length pastiche. Like his shorter works before, Gilbert is able to capture the mood and voice of both Doyle/ Watson as well as the latter years of the Victorian Era in England.

Without giving anything away I found the story exciting with lots of travel to the exotic Middle East thrown in. When one hears of the rigors of traveling to cities that, in the present day, we can get to by a plane trip, it becomes easy to appreciate why so much time passes between stops of importance in this story.

Simon De Denay's excellent narration is the icing on the cake for this very well-written book.

Dragging story and uneven narration

Very little happens in this story and what does happen unfolds painfully slowly. It starts off all right, but then quickly goes downhill. The story seemed mostly concerned with discussing the theology of the catholic church and despite the attempt to drop what I guess were supposed to be shockingly radical theological bombshells it was actually very boring. Lots of sitting around and having things explained by tertiary characters and very little of Sherlock doing any actual detective work or deductions. The narration is also a little uneven. The voices are all fine, but I found the pacing and inflection a bit off-putting. Save your money. The only mystery here is how anyone could stay awake through this.