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By DAN DERVIN
For THE FREE LANCE-STAR
How refreshing to find a mystery that doesn't start with a beautiful corpse being washed ashore in the Crimea or some similar exotic locale. We do have the Empress of India at risk on the high seas, but the subject of interest is a steamship not a lady.
The real interest in the ship lies in its cargo hold of gold bullion being transferred from Calcutta to the Bank of London.
It is 1890, the Age of Empire, and some of the more progressive princes and maharajas are exchanging this treasure for paper currency. But word has leaked both to the upper classes and the lower orders, and the safety of the shipment is in jeopardy.
All security precautions have been taken, but the bank's CEO, the Honorable Eustace Bergarot, takes the extraordinary step of consulting the most brilliant authority on the criminal mind, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes brings Watson along to a private dinner at the bank, where, over brandy and cigars, tales are traded. Watson has cited a few famous cases, and when Bergarot's turn comes, he recalls a troubling incident many years ago when a stranger invited the bankers to join him in the innermost bullion vaults. How did he manage to breach security? It turned out he worked in the London sewers and had accidentally come upon an ancient drain connecting to the bank's vault.
The next day Holmes takes Watson along to investigate the sewer systems firsthand and disappears with a rush of water below a manhole cover. With Holmes out of the way, the coast is clear for his archenemy Professor Moriarty to enter the fray. At first a suspect, he becomes intrigued by the gold project and is soon in a race with a notorious underground criminal Pin Dok Low to intercept the gold.
Having Holmes literally wash out at the outset is clearly a clever stroke, far more original than washing nude bodies ashore. But in other respects readers join the familiar company of a Sherlock Holmes tale with the hero oddly left out of the loop. Or is he? We are in for a surprise here, and a few more when the gold inevitably vanishes. Other intrigues intrude. Someone seems out to kill Moriarty on his eastward trek. Meanwhile, his sidekick Colonel Moran is plotting--or subplotting--to kidnap a priceless statue of the goddess of Lamapoor, currently the mascot of the renowned Highland Lancers.
The plots do deliver, but greater enjoyment may be found along the way in the byplay. Peripheral accounts of Victorian colonials and their entertainments at sea effectively transcend the genre. Brig. Gen. St. Ives and his witty daughter Margaret are wined and dined by the viceroy as a prelude to his being charged with guarding the gold. And when a body mysteriously turns up during dinner in the waiting room, an enterprising young English officer is put on the crime. Can romance be far behind?
Those who lament that they don't write them like they used to can take heart. This one does--maybe even better. In keeping with the spirit of the prose, I'm tempted to call this charming period piece a rip-snorting, cracking good yarn. Fetch the decanter of brandy, but hold the cigars.
Formerly a member of the UMW English department, Dan Dervin is now devoted to writing full time.
Empress of India By Michael Kurland (St. Martin's Minotaur, 320 pages, $24.95) |
