In this brilliantly crafted pastiche, Stephen Kendrick brings Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown together in an unprecedented collaboration on a singularly shocking murder case.
It is Christmas Day, 1902, and a priests mutilated body has been found in a London church that is hosting a secret interfaith meeting to discuss the possibility of a Parliament of World Religions. A summons from the Prime Minister plunges Holmes into a case with international, political, and ecclesiastical complications. Untrampled snow surrounding the church suggests that the murderer remains within and that he is, presumably, one of the leaders of the worlds great faiths.
Throughout the night, as more deaths are discovered, Holmes and Dr. Watson follow one false lead after another. But with his legendary astuteness, Holmes manages to wrap the case up in less than twenty-four hoursor so it seems. Two weeks later, Father Brown, the meek young priest-translator, pays a call at Baker Street to reveal a few loose ends.
The intersection of religion and politics, faith and sin, enmity and forgivenessthese themes are subtly interwoven into this fast-paced mystery that is filled with classic intrigue.
From Publishers Weekly
With an ingenuous dismissal of other Sherlock Holmes pastiches as, well, mere pastiches, Kendrick sets about a taut reworking of the venerable "locked room" mystery. His tale of murder in the cathedral, he insists, is genuine: a lost account from the one true chronicler, Dr. Watson. Kendrick also dusts off another of sleuthdom's icons, Father Brown. The mix works. Though the narrative voice little evokes that of the Good Doctor, Kendrick knows and respects his source materials. A cleric himself, he also knows church history. Not only does he use little remembered figures (such as the heretic Pelagius) and events (such as the World's Parliament of Religions in 1893), but he integrates them so well with the mystery that the reader pores over the historical minutiae for possible clues. Representatives from each of the world's major religions gather secretly in a London church to plan for an important ecumenical conference; then one of them murders his Anglican host in most unholy fashion. Holmes and Father Brown have but one night to solve the grizzly murder, aided by such stalwarts as Inspector Lestrade and Mycroft Holmes. In the light of the past century's history and, particularly, recent events, there is a profoundly tragic aspect to Kendrick's plotting and his roster of suspects Roman Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu and Islamic who join together in the hope of establishing common ground. A century later, such vision seems all but trampled under.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The influence of the Sherlock Holmes stories is so pervasive that each year sees more critical essays, parodies, pastiches, or other ways of continuing the Holmes canon. Two novels are the latest to surface, each with its own gimmick. In Night Watch, the great Holmes meets G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown. Kendrick (Holy Clues) stays safely on Holmes's home turf of London, and the tone of the book is closer to the original, with an appropriately sinister atmosphere. Holmes (and his brother Mycroft) and Watson are called to a convention of clerics of the world's major religions, where someone has murdered the host. Throughout the night, more deaths are discovered, but in the space of 24 hours, Holmes apparently solves the case. But then, two weeks later, Father Brown, in his quiet, self-effacing way, provides the real solution.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.