Product Description

This novel is an exciting fusion of a Sherlock Holmes mystery with the Ruritanian world of intrigue and skulduggery of Anthony Hope's novel "The Prisoner of Zenda". Colonel Sapt of the Ruritanian Court journeys to England on a secret mission to save the country from anarchy. His mission is to engage the services of Rudolf Rassendyll once more to impersonate the King while the monarch recovers from a serious illness. But Rassendyll has mysteriously disappeared. In desperation, Sapt consults Sherlock Holmes who, with his faithful companion Watson, travels to the Kingdom of Ruritania in an effort to thwart the plans of the scheming Rupert of Hentzau in his bid for the throne. "Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair" is a wonderful blend of detective story and rousing adventure yarn.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199157 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

A convincing blend of two author styles
I am a fan of both the Sherlock Holmes stories and the Zenda stories of Anthony Hope. Therefore I was intrigued by the idea of an original story that brings the two together.

David Stuart Davies does a magnificent job with this short story. It inevitably reads more like a Holmes story but Hope's characters behave and act as they do in his own works.

My only criticism of this book lies in the fact that it takes no account of Hope's own sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda - Rupert of Hentzau. Anthony Hope wrote his own sequel to the events of his famous story and Davies' story takes no account of it and presents itself as the sequel to the original. The decidedly dark and sad ending of Hope's sequel is replaced with the upbeat and happy ending that modern readers tend to insist on. Such an ending was impossible at the time Hope wrote his originals but Davies, freed of such limitations, has been able to end the Zenda adventure on a high note.

I heartily recommend this book but readers should also make sure they read Hope's own sequel and appreciate how he envisaged the ending of the Zenda adventures.

Clumsiness in Ruritania
Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair (Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural) I have been a keen fan of both Ruritania and Sherlock Holmes since I was a teenager, and here were all my favourite characters combined in one book. My eagerness to read this story soon became disappointment, however. The Sherlock Holmes part was all right, but one has to try and forget ever having read 'Rupert of Hentzau' (a difficult requirement, because in my view it is the best of the Ruritanian novels). Colonel Sapt is killed by von Hentzau's agents within a page or two of consulting the famous detective and suffering a mysterious collapse, the purpose of which I couldn't really fathom. I also found the character of Rupert von Hentzau himself slightly misread - he was all villain, like James Mason in the film version, with none of the attractiveness conveyed by Peter Wyngard in the TV series, and Rudolf Rassendyl also came over as something of a cipher. The final encounter between Rudolf Rassendyl and Rupert von Hentzau, set on the station at Strelsau, was also I thought not as good as the 'real' one in the cheap lodging house in Strelsau in 'Rupert of Hentzau'. On the whole a good effort by David Stuart Davies, but not quite up to the mark.

Sherlock Holmes and the Hentzau Affair
Having read "Dancing In The Moonlight" by David Stuart Davies, and enjoyed it thoroughly, I felt quite comfortable purchasing several of his Sherlock Holmes pastiches.

This book starts out with all the promise of a really good Holmes & Watson tale; Foreign diplomats, spies, murder, kidnapping and International terrorism!

Sadly as the tale progresses the main plot is pretty transparent from chapter six onwards and this is where I started to note some serious inconsistencies with Holmes character. Blindly blundering into obvious traps (and it not being intentional in order to uncover who is behind them) being my main bone of contention, coupled with a very loose structure that left me feeling that it was more luck than logic that got this case resolved.

The character of Watson is consistent and in character and there is plenty of action, the pace being quite fast. It was also nice to see the internal power struggle that blighted Ruritanian and its escalation.

Having guessed the conclusion pretty early on, I struggled to finish this book.