1994 fantasy, eighth in Saberhagen's loose Dracula series. We're
back with Sherlock Holmes as he investigates what seems at first to be
a simple spiritualist fraud.
Yes, this is a return to my favourite sub-series of Saberhagen's
Dracula, the Victorian adventures with Holmes and Watson, though
we're now in 1903 and those of the principals who still age are
starting to get on a bit.
A woman has drowned while boating with her fiancée and her sister:
tragic, but not remarkable. Her mother has brought in a mediumistic
pair, to astounding results; obviously it's fraud. But why does the
ghost of the dead woman insist on talking about the restoration of a
family treasure?
Some of what's going on is given away by an introductory chapter set
in 1765, and there are more scenes from the viewpoint of the ungodly,
but I still enjoyed this as a puzzle-story. There's an attempt to
generate tension by a casual early mention of a "Gregory Efimovich",
but since I'm the sort of person who can put that name together with
the date and know exactly what's being hinted at, for me this
particular thread—which relies upon the reader being surprised by his
identity—fell a little flat. But it's only one of several things that
are going on, and the book stood well without its support.
Perhaps the ultimate explanation is a little too straightforward given
the effort needed to untangle it, but I'd rather this sort of
relatively small story than one that tries to call to mind huge
magical weirdness but then fails to do much with it.