Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra

by Paul D. Gilbert

Watson narrates a new Holmes adventure featuring plenty of twists and classic touches In the autumn of 1898, the Docklands of London are stunned by the arrival of a long overdue clipper ship, the "Matilda Briggs," which has apparently drifted into a vacant berth. The only crew member still on board is a young cabin boy and he is in the throes of death, following a mysterious attack. The great consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, is called to investigate the matter but the case fails to grip his imagination. Instead, he is more interested in the disappearance of a famous archaeologist. A violent confrontation on the waterfront brings this story to a shocking conclusion.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

333 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious and often predictable

I don't know who these two main characters are, but they are not Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The person masquerading as Holmes makes the real character seem humble, shy and the epitome of consideration by comparison.

If you have ever wondered why Doyle is so often referred to as Conan Doyle this brief aside maybe of interest: Steven Doyle, editor of "The Baker Street Journal", wrote, "Conan was Arthur's middle name. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply 'Doyle'." He was knighted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle.

A large part of the action in this novel, such as it is, consists of a young man named Collier reading aloud letters from his father. Why the pseudo Holmes sits through this is unclear. Collier does not articulate a problem and what he expects Holmes to do about it. By implication it appears that he wants Holmes to find his father, but his father's last known whereabouts was the Atjeh territory on the island of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies. A world and thousands of miles distant from London. Atjeh is the Dutch spelling of Aceh and the name which would have been used at the time of this story. The contents of the letters are not tied into the case of the Matilda Briggs until near the end of the book. Then it is done so in such a way that most readers will have seen it coming pages and tedious pages in advance. There is never an explanation as to how Holmes knew in advance that the two matters were related. Perhaps he just guessed because of the proximity of India to Sumatra. That would be about 2000 miles.

Conan Doyle used the device of reading aloud to Holmes and Watson in THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. However the reading by Dr. Mortimer was briefer and more interesting than that by Mr. Collier. It was also obviously related to the plot.

The plot is convoluted and unbelievable. For instance why are Indian Hindu or Hindu inspired rebels welcomed in the Islamic province of Atjeh? The place was so hostile and so dangerous that for many years Dutch soldiers, colonial police and others got an "Atjeh" bar for their Expediton Cross even if there was no actual war occurring during their service. How did Sir Michael Collier survive there? The book just states that despite their reputation, the natives he met were friendly. Friendly to a European in the midst of one of their active rebellions against the Dutch?

In this book the Giant Rat of Sumatra turns out to be a title of respect given to an Indian leader of a revolt against the British Raj. Right. An Indian rebel called by a Sumatran title. In addition to that unlikely occurrence, I would want an etymological explanation as to why rat is a title of respect on Sumatra.

There are many other problems with the plot which I have neither space nor patience to mention. I made it through about 87% of the book before I became so bored that I decided I did not care what happened in the end.

[Khurram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since Sir Arthur created Sherlock Holmes, they have been many incarnation of him. I think Paul D Gilberts work is the closest to the original. Through this book Gilbert shows Holmes at his best and worsts both mentally and physically. Sherlock also uses all the resources at his disposal bringing back a number of sud characters. I do not want to give anything away, but is you are a fan Sir Arthur's work, and appreciate continuity this is the book for you. Great job by Paul Gilbert, and thanks Spencer of introducing me to his work.

[Marty Langenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Smoking, and more smoking.

i wish I could say the story was smoking, as in "hot". Sadly, it wasn't. I persevered to the end. Surely it would warm, just a little, eventually. It never did. Someone reads a boring letter that goes on, and on, and on, and could have been summarised in a few paragraphs. Watson says he precis-ed the last part. Not in the way I was taught to precis. There's a confusing explanation of why a big man might be nick named a rat. ??? WT??? Did I mention there was smoking? On every other page? There's no mystery here. Save your money and your time.

[Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the lamest Giant Rat ever. The second plot line of the missing Michael Collier seems like the hugest of coincidences & takes up the whole middle of the book. All Holmes & Watson seem to do is smoke & drink. It's well written but the plot needed a lot more work.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most of Doyle's long Holmes stories, it has a lot of padding to make the book longer, and not very much Holmes in it. Gilbert captures the main characters well and evokes the time period fairly well, but making this a long form story instead of a short story was a mistake. It feels deliberately paced slower, the conclusions by Holmes are a bit reachy (I mean, it could have gone that way, but there are dozens of other possibilities) and the story doesn't flow well.

Worse, the exciting and possibly supernatural feel of the very short mention of this story in Sussex Vampire turns into a rather pedestrian story with a dull and disappointingly portrayed "giant rat".

But, the story was well written in terms of style, time, characterization, and grammar.

[Timothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I get it. In 1890s England, everyone meditates , and smokes ... a LOT. I realized about 55% of my way through this story that I looked forward to a page or two that didn't mention one or the other. At that point, if that's what has my attention, the story definitely has failed for me.
Maybe it's a book like Confederacy of Dunces that is completely brought together in the last 20% of the story. It has that potential based on other reviews and the bringing the two main storylines together. Maybe I gave up too soon. Or maybe it would have kept bothering me until I wasted more time before giving up on it.

[Tuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

fairly clever idea to tie in AC doyle's throw away line about the case of the giant rat of sumatra, and this stand alone doyle-like mystery. Evokes nicely the writing of doyle, and has a rip roaring story/action subplots, but the actual mystery/bad guys was fairly flat lined and not that believable

[Konstantina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long, long, long letters reading... Unjustified plot and unrealistic characters.
Reading this book became very tiring at around 30%, and impossible at 60%.

[GW · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Giant Rat

Sorry. This just didn't work for me. I have siesta enjoyed Sherlock Homes stories but this one just left me flat.

[Stanley Goldyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Gilbert offers two concurrently-running paths to Holmes and Watson, allowing the sleuth and his colleague to grapple with a series of mysteries that eventually merge into one.

Amongst frequent cigarette and pipe smoking, the reader is led through an entangled web hosted by Declan McCrory, the American shipping magnate, Tilat, the Giant Rat of Sumatra, and the enigmatic vessel, the Matilda Briggs.

Written in a laudable Conan Doyle-esque style, Holmes' inimitable abilities take us by the hand as we bump along to an inevitable conclusion. I have followed the enjoyable writing wit and clarity of Doyle forever, and in the lamentable absence of our favourite doctor, I can happily report my enjoyment in reading Gilbert's approach and technique, allowing the continuation of Holmes' adventures.

A commendable and fun read.

[NRVOUTDOORSMAN · Rating 1 out of 5]

Doyle must be spinning in his grave

One of the worst Holmes pastiches I've ever read. Floridly over-written, full of cliches, Holmes does no detecting, but does stuff Holmes would never do...what a waste of five hours of my life that I'll never get back. The more I read the worse it got. It was almost impossible to finish.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

1898 Holmes is faced with two cases, that of the ship Matilda Briggs, an abandaned ship and that of Daniel Collier son of the explorer Sir Michael Collier. Daniel is concerned for his father.
An entertaining Holmes story

[Delia Binder · Rating 1 out of 5]

The moment I hit Sherlock Holmes, the Logical Reasoner, seriously talking about using levitation and astral travel?

I nope'd right out of this book.

To paraphrase what I always say about Alex Kurtzman's version of STAR TREK? That's Not Sherlock Holmes.

It's not worth the free I paid for it.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the many slight mentions of unrecorded tales in the Holmes stories, this particular one has inspired the most pastiches. I have three novels with this title(The Richard Boyer book does omit Sherlock Holmes and... from the title) as well as several short stories in various pastiche collections).

This one begins when Holmes is hired by an insurance company to investigate the Matilda Briggs incident. The clipper ship had drifted in forty miles and two days late from it's original date. The cargo, tea, is intact and the crew missing except for a cabin boy who with dying breath utters the words "Death himself has come for us all!" The captain's log is also missing.

Author Gilbert captures the voice nicely and delivers an original tale.

[Ann Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! I really enjoyed the narrative style, combined with so many tales of Far Eastern culture. One man's quest became a compulsion and he changed over time, changed into something even his own son would not recognize.

[Bailey Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It could be slow at times, but everyone was definitely in character and the ending was good.

[Crimefictioncritic · Rating 4 out of 5]

At 221B Baker Street in London resides a man named Sherlock Holmes. Of course, almost everyone knows who Sherlock Holmes is. Even those who haven’t read one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories or novels featuring the famous detective have likely at least seen or read one of the myriads of adaptations of Holmes and his adventures.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first introduced his iconic consulting detective character in A Study in Scarlet in 1887. Sherlock Holmes then appeared in a series of short stories that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned and that The Strand Magazine published from 1887 to 1927. Eventually, Doyle’s works totaled 56 short stories and four novels.

Like Doyle, Gilbert’s writing style truly brings Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. John Watson, to life. He also makes Holmes appear to be an actual genius, which I think is difficult to convey through writing. True to the original stories and books, Gilbert presents Sherlock Holmes as an enigma, his deductive thought processes interesting but almost impossible for readers to understand. Also true to the originals, Gilbert tells this adventure through Watson’s point of view as a memoir about Sherlock Holmes.

As Sherlock Holmes is a consulting detective, police detectives often visit him to help with cases, and that is how this book opens. Detective Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard, who appears in several Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, comes to Holmes for help on a case involving a ship, the Matilda Briggs. Dock workers arrived at work to discover the ship occupying what was supposed to be an empty berth and was untethered. When they boarded the vessel, the workers found only one crew member on board who was injured and later died. Having no idea what had happened to the rest of the crew or why the ship seemed abandoned, the ship insurers, on Lestrade’s recommendation, hired Holmes to investigate the mystery. As in Doyle’s stories, Gilbert uses the interactions between Holmes and the detective to add some comedy to the mystery story that helps keep the reader entertained and to give us more insight into Holmes’ personality.

As Holmes begins work on the “ship of ghosts” mystery, a young man (Daniel Collier) appears at his rooms seeking Holme’s help with his father’s disappearance. Predictably, the two cases turn out related and what Holmes learns from Collier helps him solve the Matilda Briggs case.

Collier’s part of the story is the only part of the book I didn’t like much. Gilbert uses a series of letters Collier had received from his father to provide readers with information that ties the two cases together. This technique used sparingly to provide some backstory is fine. But here, the reader gets far too much of it. I tired quickly of Collier reading the letters for Watson and Holmes’ benefit and frankly even resorted to skimming through the last of it. Despite a few important details, the entire letter bit distracts from the narrative. I’d rather have seen this handled in a different, more effective way. But thankfully, overall, I found the book an enjoyable read despite the lengthy letters, and I found it true to the style Doyle used in the original Sherlock Holmes tales. The modern stories of Sherlock Holmes that remain true to the classics as this one does are quite entertaining to read.

[Richard S. Levick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read all of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes books and stories, both pre- and post his seven year retirement from The Strand, I have a fairly satisfactory comfort with Mr. Doyle's style in both his iterations. I think Mr. Gilbert has done a superb job in being true to Mr. Doyle's vision while still being different enough to establish his own impressive style.

The differences I note are in three areas which, though they work, did make me miss Mr. Doyle's original approach:

1. Mr. Holmes is more sarcastic and arrogant, requiring him to apologize more frequently. Someone of Holmes' impressive intellect and spiritual foundation should hold his occasional obnoxiousness in check more easily.
2. The relationship between Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson does have more periods of tension than the original. The two men loved each other after years of working side by side and there should be a greater level of faith exhibited.
3. Sometimes Mr. Gilbert flirts with making Holmes a super hero, always disproving his doubters, including Dr. Watson and Inspector Lestrade. In a climactic scene, Mr. Holmes is showing off his physical attributes - a trick more reminiscent of Hollywood than Doyle.

None-the-less, Mr. Gilbert has to do something to put his own stamp on his version and he does a very nice job. A delightful read and one that, true to the better Holmes variations -- the 1940s & 1950s radio series (with Sir Arthur John Gielgud as Holmes), books, PBS and BBC -- require the reader/listener/viewer to pay close attention or risk missing a subtle but crucial clue. In Mr. Gilbert's telling, the clues are there, and true to the high art, they require a partnership between writer and reader.

Well done, Mr. Gilbert.

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new Sherlock Holmes mystery inspired by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle mentions this “rat” in a story he published titled The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire alluding that this was case previously handled by Homes. However, that “rat” story was never developed by Doyle. In 2010, Paul D. Gilbert published his version of the story in England and refreshed it for publication in the USA in 2019. This story starts in 1898 when an abandoned tea cutter ship arrives at a London Dock. There is no crew and it seems the ship drifted into a dock on its own. Sherlock Holmes is hired by the insurance company to explain what happened to the crew and its cargo. As he begins his investigation, the son of a famed English explorer seeks Holmes help to unravel his father’s disappearance while attempting to leave Sumatra (an island in The Dutch East Indies now part on Indonesia). At first, these seem to be two unconnected events, but Holmes connects them which leads to the solution to both cases. Most of the action and detail actually occurs second hand as the journals and letters of the missing explorer are read aloud by the son to Holmes and Watson. I would have preferred first hand -experience as opposed to a dry reading of events that occurred to some else. The London setting and the characters of Holmes, Watson and Lastrade are portrayed faithfully to the Doyle creations.

[Graham Tallents · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a bitter disappointment. This book could easily have earned a four, possibly five star rating, but, through no fault of the author, I could only award two stars. Throughout the book there are a number of letters from a missing explorer to his son. These letters form the basis and background to the entire story. In order to highlight these letters, the publishers, in their lack of wisdom, decided to present them in a font size half that of the rest of the text. As a 76 year old requiring reading glasses, I was unable to read the letters without getting a headache from eyestrain. As such I had to scroll through them and missed much of the story. In praise of Paul D Gilbert, he has been able to replicate the writing style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, right down to the mannerisms and Old English language of Holmes and Watson. Such a shame it was wasted here.

[Mr Sherlockian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a whole lot of Sherlock Holmes in my lifetime and I am delighted that Holmes is evidently selling enough to justify books like these, a full length, large scope adventure. I was intrigued with this book from the start and as the story unfolded there were plenty of unexpected twists and turns so you never really knew who could be trusted. Although much of the story is an adventure yarn set in the far east, it is comforting to know that Sherlock Holmes can solve it all within the comfort of his room in Baker Street.

I truly believe Paul D Gilbert has somehow inherited the wisdom of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and i cannot wait for further adventures into this saga!

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a few years since I last read a Conan-Doyle Sherlock Holmes story, but this certainly made me forget that it was written by someone else. The author has captured the style well, and the writing brought back similar images of Victorian London.

In this story, Holes and Watson look into two cases:
- A steam ship has returned from India with its cargo of tea, but the crew are mysteriously missing.
- A young man's father is missing, possibly dead, and wants to find out what happened.

Holmes does some investigation and solves both mysteries, in a fashion.

[Delores Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange ship is missing its crew and is sitting at an abandoned dock. One of the crew is dead. Later a man is found dead in the river. Also a young man is trying to find his father based on his letters he sent from Sumatra. Could this all tie together? The letters make for very exciting reading and the whole story falls together very nicely.

[Alexa Gi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing journey. I can say without a doubt that Sherlock Holmes and the Giant rat of Sumatra is one of my favourite books of all time. One of these that you have in your drawer, aside the bed.. I know I'l come back over and over again. And I also know that I won't be disappointed nor bored to take the traces of Holmes & Watson one more time.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent reading

Another very will written Sherlock Holmes mystery. The characters are interesting and will developed. The story line is very complicated with lots of misdirection leading to the unexpected conclusion. I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Enjoy reading 2020😇⏰

[Keith Withers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly engrossing and gripping mystery

This is a thoroughly inspired work much in the way of the inspiration of the original works of Conan Doyle. It is brilliant and gripping throughout and a credit to its author. As a devoted Holmes reader I was delighted to have read it and would recommend it to all Conan Doyle devotees.

[Pete Ffrench · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two stories interlaced and Holmes in the middle sorting out the truth with the help of his friend the Doctor and the bumbling Lestrade, just like old times. Well executed in old style writing but too much emphasis on the smoking and drinking it's a wonder he ever survived to fall off a cliff in the final problem. Very readable.

[Tim Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pleasant surprise

I would heartily recommend this book and author to anyone that has a smattering of knowledge of Holmes and Dr Watson. I was at first skeptical of the author and his subject, but upon beginning the story I was entranced by his style and imagination..J will be looking for more works by Gilbert.

[William (Mr. Bill) Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sherlock Holmes - an excellent portrayal by Gilbert

If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes, I believe you will enjoy this book. Author Paul D. Gilbert has captured the writing style and tempo of Arthur Conan Doyle. If was easy for me to visualize the beloved character played by Basil Rathbone as I read.

[Rune Fjord · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems to be a middle of the lane Sherlock story, the atmosphere of the 1800's is there, and there is a mystery, one might want a little more of Sherlocks deductions than are present in this book. But all in all, it is a Holmes story, it feels like a Holmes story, but the story and its resolution will not be on the list of the best Holmes stories