Sherlock Homes - The Vanishing Man by Philip Purser-Hallard

I would like to thank Julia from Titan books for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price - £7.99 paperback £4.31 Kindle

It is 1896, and Sherlock Holmes is investigating a self-proclaimed psychic who disappeared from a locked room, in front of several witnesses.

While attempting to prove the existence of telekinesis to a scientific society, an alleged psychic, Kellway, vanished before their eyes during the experiment. With a large reward at stake, Holmes is convinced Kellway is a charlatan – or he would be, if he had returned to claim his prize. As Holmes and Watson investigate, the case only grows stranger, and they must contend with an interfering ‘occult detective’ and an increasingly deranged cult. But when one of the society members is found dead, events take a far more sinister turn…

It’s always fascinating to know that Arthur Conan Doyle created the ultra-rationalist Sherlock Holmes also believed in fairies and psychics. It feels a contradiction that someone creates such a logical character and yet believed in magic and the beyond at the same time. In our time of anti-vaxxers and fake news having someone who doesn’t fall for the charlatans feels ever important. And it’s interesting that in several post-Doyle stories using Holmes we often see the detective matched up against the illogical be it a Christmas Demon or even Cthulhu! In Philip Purser-Hallard’s enticing Holmesian tale The Vanished Man we get a locked room mystery with a difference – the potential involvement of Venusians!

Holmes and Watson are hired by Sir Newham Speight the wealthy industrialist and Chair of the Society for the Scientific Investigation of Psychical Phenomena. An eclectic mix of the interested and the full-on believers searching for proof of something beyond our current knowledge. In fact, the society through Sir Newnham’s wealth offer a £10,000 pound prize (a huge fortune in 1896) for anyone who can produce a feat that shows psychic ability. And for the first time ever someone appears to have done it. Thomas Kellway a mysterious man with no facial hair claims to have learnt the art of teleportation through his meditations giving him lessons from ancient Venusians. He is locked up in a lab for the night under regular guard and then asked to take an object for another locked room via his powers. Over many hours he is watched over by various society members and then in five minutes he vanishes and hasn’t been seen since. It doesn’t appear a crime, but Sir Newnham would like to know what exactly is going on now that 48 hours has elapsed.

What I really enjoyed about this story is that we as the readers of 2019 clearly know that Kellway must be lying and that Venusians are not part of the story. Despite this though the set-up of a vanishing man in a locked room that was being constantly monitored is a delicious mystery to dive into. Clearly the impossible didn’t happen so per that famous saying what truth is left. The reader is in the same position as Holmes and Watson; we know something isn’t right; so, we effectively must follow the investigation trying to see what the society members didn’t. Unfortunately, dear reader we are not Sherlock Holmes but it’s a great test to see if we can work out what is going on before Watson is told!

Purser-Hallard has created a lovely tangle of some strange Society members including a Russian aristocrat psychic; a super sarcastic reverend and an obnoxious playwright who invented his own religion; all of whom may have secrets and reasons to see Sir Newnham pay out the reward. Alongside this we also start to look at the potential ways someone could engineer such a trick in the 19th century and why would they. Just when we think it’s all just pompous people being rude to each other though there is a brutal murder that shows someone is playing a very different game and things take a far sinister turn. Purser-Hallard deftly creates blind alleys; red herrings and misdirects with accomplishment however it all eventually adds up and the finale is a visual feast of Victorian wonder that just itches to be onscreen one day.

Getting Holmes and Watson right is always important in these kinds of novels and the voice for Watson really works well. He’s not stupid and even does his own quite impressive investigating and is on occasion able to chide Holmes into putting his own ego into check – it very much feels like a Holmesian tale. Sherlock too works well - he’s very mystery focused and puts that above everything, but he can be humane and jovial when in the right frame of mind. He feels still at least human rather than just a clever sarcastic joke machine and while this Holmes really does love to pull the’ I know something you do not’ routine a lot you can’t help thinking he is the one character who is allowed to because he has done the heavy lifting!

At this time of year its always weirdly appropriate to settle down with a murder mystery and this was a delightful treat. A great mystery which the reader will want to put their own mental abilities in competition with Holmes with and when all is revealed it will still feel very satisfactory. Another highly recommended take on our favourite great detective.