During a quick trip to Austria over the weekend for a family wedding, I re-read White Fire, an Agent Pendergast novel from 2013. I'd forgotten that it's such a wonderful homage to Sherlock Holmes, including a better-than-average pastiche!
My opinion remains what I blogged at the time. It's highly entertaining, with special treats for Sherlockians. But it struck me the second time around that the uninitiated might take a lot of the fictional backstory as being true. This is a novel. If you're unsure which of the parts including real people (primarily Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde) didn't actually happen, there are many factual sources to go to.
May I recommend From Holmes to Sherlock?
I love all of Preston and Child's books especially those about Agent Pendergast. I also love Sherlock Holmes and last week I ordered "From Holmes to Sherlock" from the Mysterious Bookshop. Looking forward to reading it.
ReplyDeleteI have so many favorites that I read and re-read, but I'm always on the lookout for my next "book friend", and since I have so much to read, I can be patient. If something looks promising, I start to accumulate every title in a series, sometimes waiting several years until I have every book so that I can read them straight through in order in a white heat. I generally find everything eventually in used book stores, but sometimes I have to buy a final stubbornly missing title online. (Right now, for instance, I've found all but three of Allingham's Albert Campion books, upon the recommendation of Master Sherlockian Roger Johnson. Soon I'll have them, and then I'll be in the world of Campion for a while.)
ReplyDeleteI have all the Agent Pendergast books in hardback, and I'm just waiting for the chance to read them. (I've already read, however, the Holmes pastiche in "White Fire".)