Sherlock Holmes - The Devil's Dust

Mixing Holmes with Haggard’s Allan Quatermain is not an easy trick but Lovegrove manages with grace, charm and loads of genuine rip roaring adventure.

Early in Holmes' career, with money scarce, he takes a case brought to him by Mrs. Hudson. A fellow landlady is under suspicion of having poisoned a lodger, a mysterious character... and the poison used is equally mysterious. Investigation brings Holmes into contact with and competition with the single most famous adventure hero of Victorian-era fiction, Allan Quatermain, the hero of at least 18 novels and one short story collection, published by H. Rider Haggard between 1885 and 1927! AQ and his gigantic Zulu warrior friend Umslopogaas are in England, camping out in an isolated park, attempting to discover who killed AQ's son Harry in a South African mining town, and why. A quest for a solution to both murders leads to a large and unscrupulous mining company run by three creepy brothers, to a sadistic South African mine foreman, and to the greatest and most dangerous enemy AQ ever had, somehow back from the dead!Because Haggard wrote the AQ novels completely our of any chronological order, and with many discrepancies, there is really no way to create a consistent biography of AQ or his son from the original sources. In Lovegrove's novel, AQ seems to come across as a braggart, something I don't recall from my reading of the original AQ novels and stories many decades ago. I think Lovegrove's done a pretty good job of synchronizing the histories of AQ and Holmes, however. And I think you'll enjoy the wild adventure that results.

I completely fail to understand any of the negative reviews of this novel; for me it succeeded on all levels. While I am generally not much interested in lost world or forgotten civilization themes or characters (except for the Indiana Jones movies), I found the interaction between Holmes and Quartermain quite enjoyable. To me, some of the most successful Holmes novels involving occult, supernatural, or otherwise otherworldly elements are those which allowed for both the rational interpretations of events by Holmes paired with a less strictly rational view of other characters, and this book fell strongly into that category. (It also quite nicely seemed to work to see the main characters portrayed in my head by Benedict Cumberbatch and Sean Connery as the main characters this time around.) Very enjoyable!

I really liked this book. I loved the twists and turns which worked like a Sherlock Holmes book. My only knock on this book is that Holmes and Watson don't quite "sound" like Holmes and Warson.

For lovers of Sherlock Holmes, I love Sherlock Holmes

Hello, this story is absolutely wonderful. The writing is spot on. I can see the characters in a way that you can't in a lot of stories. Damn fine stuff. Thanks.

Good book. I love SH stories and this was a good one

Love the author’s work. If you have read any of his work you know what I mean. If not and you love Sherlock Holmes then you must read his work. You will not regret it.

Damn good read.

The mind controlled wildlife was laughable. Spoiled the book.

His usual high standard, an excellent plot and very well written

You can't beat the pairing of Holmes and Allan Quatermain! Clever story which provides a very satisfying ending. Excellent read!

Clever but Quartermain comes a cross as a thorough pill and whilst he asks for sympathy as a character it is hard to grant. Interesting back story but didn't really do it for me. Having said that I am really pleased to have read it