The West End Horror
LC Class PZ4.M6135 We3 PS3563.E88 | | |
Preceded by | The Seven-Per-Cent Solution | |
---|---|---|
Followed by | The Canary Trainer |
The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D. is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel by Nicholas Meyer, published in 1976. It takes place after two of Meyer's other Holmes pastiches, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and The Canary Trainer, though it was published in between the two.
The plot concerns a series of strange murders in London's theatre district at the end of the 19th century.[1] It also includes a first meeting between Holmes and Doctor Moore Agar, whose "dramatic introduction to Holmes" was one that Watson, in the original Arthur Conan Doyle story "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot", wrote that he "may some day recount."
The West End Horror made The New York Times Best Seller list for eleven weeks between June 13, 1976 and August 22, 1976.[2]
Plot
The book is written in the form of a false document. It opens with a foreword by Meyer, who states that the manuscript was brought to his attention by a woman with some familial connection to Horace Vernet, an ancestor of Holmes. The woman had read The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and thought Meyer might be interested. Although damaged by water, the manuscript proved authentic.
The story involves many well-known people, including
In the novel, Holmes clears the name of a shy Parsee Indian wrongfully accused of murder; in real life Conan Doyle played a significant part in helping George Edalji, a Parsee victim of injustice in the English court.[1]
References
- ^ ISBN 0-06-015620-1.
- ^ Adult New York Times Best Seller Lists for 1976. Retrieved 23 December 2012.