Charles
Bromley is a man with two problems: a highly-strung wife and
a very valuable diamond. The Moonstone has been in his wife’s
family for a hundred years and always seems to cause trouble.
Now Alice is convinced somebody wants to kill her and steal
the stone so Charles has decided to throw one last dinner
party where she can wear it and then it will be going into
a bank vault. But when a jeweller is found dead it starts
to look as though maybe it is not all in Alice’s mind
after all.
This is Mr Siciliano’s sequel to Wilkie Collins’
The Moonstone and his fifth book about Sherlock Holmes with
his alternative confederate, cousin and narrator Dr Henry
Vernier. Dr Watson is mentioned as an over-imaginative chronicler
but there is no explanation as to why Holmes is working with
somebody else. An explanation would have been a good idea
for those readers who have not started at the beginning. Dr
Vernier is married to the large and lusty Dr Doudet Vernier
and both of them lend a hand with the investigation making
for a relationship akin to Watson’s but not the same.
The author manages to convey the mystique and malevolence
of truly unique stones and despite her extreme neurosis it
is not hard to see Alice’s repugnance of it or why it
has such a dark history. He is also adept at building an atmosphere
of mounting tension, although a bit of editing would have
made for a tauter, more exciting novel. Reading this series
from the beginning would be best for maximum enjoyment, but
that aside there is plenty to enjoy in this imaginative series.
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