![]() THE SHERLOCK HOLMES CONNECTIONSucharita Sengupta THE SHERLOCK HOLMES CONNECTION By Martin Widmark, Anushka Ravishankar, Katarina Genar, Bikram Ghosh Year 2015, pp. 192, Rs. 295.00 VOLUME XL NUMBER 11 November 2016 The fascination with Sherlock Holmes
has endured across time and generations.
Fans cannot have enough of
this great fictional detective and his associate,
John Watson. More recently, their adventures
have been adapted and recreated
for television and cinema, sometimes with a
very modern upgrade. Every spin-off has
worked remarkably well, a testimony to the
genius of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original creation.
So it is that Holmes has been dragged
into even more adventures, four of which
have been penned by the authors of The Sherlock Holmes Connection,
created specially for the reading pleasure of teens.
The adventures in this book are set in two countries, India and
Sweden, and span a period of over a century. Martin Widmark’s
story is set in Stockholm towards the end of the First World War.
The distraught 12-year old, Stefan, has just discovered that his
mother, who was believed to have committed suicide, was actually
murdered. Employed as an engineer, his mother was requested to
build a machine that would assist in the cure of certain diseases. To
her utter horror, she discovers a ghastly conspiracy where innocent
lives were being staked at the altar of profit. Before her murder, she
leaves behind clues across Stockholm, which Stefan is intent upon
discovering, even as his own life stands threatened. The magnifying
glass that he finds under the Christmas tree at home helps him on
his quest.
The second story brings the reader to India, 1976. Anushka
Ravishankar weaves a thriller into the events of the Emergency. Varun’s
parents have mysteriously packed him off to stay with their friends,
while they themselves disappear. The bored youngster starts a
Sherlock Detective Club with some of his new friends. They are
mostly solving unimportant mysteries till a real one hits them—
why did Varun’s parents disappear. Times are turbulent for journalists
like Varun’s father. Not only are they being stopped from reporting
truthfully, but being turned into criminals for doing so. Varun
and his clever friend Jyotsna, discover a sheaf of recipes tucked away
in his luggage, and while playing with a magnifying glass loaned to
them by an elderly foreign lady, they stumble upon a world of secret
codes that leads them to Varun’s parents.
The third adventure takes the reader back to Sweden in the 1990s,
but this time, the mystery takes place in the Swedish countryside.
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