I usually review nonfiction
books on this blog (a likely cause of no one reading it). Sometimes I read a fiction book
that I enjoy so much, I comment on it anyway.
The Peerless Peer is such a
book. Philip
Jose Farmer brings together Sherlock
Holmes and Tarzan
in the heart of Africa.
Holmes and Watson
are on a mission to retrieve a formula that could change the course of World War I
by destroying all the fish and chips. Along the way, Holmes sorts out certain
points of the Greystoke
family history that are “wrong” in the sensational jungle king novels of Edgar
Rice Burroughs.
Farmer throws in cameos and name-dropping of a host of popular and pulp
heroes. On their first two, back-to-back airplane flights, Holmes and Watson
have the mixed blessings of being piloted by G-8 (possibly The Spider)
and The Shadow.
They obviously meet Tarzan, and unexpectedly meet the daughter of Allan Quatermain.
Along the way, they interact with Henry
Merrivale and Gideon Fell.
As a player of The
Game, Farmer describes how Watson’s previously unpublished manuscript came
to him through a chain of provenance that included Lord Peter
Wimsey.
If you’re looking for a short, fun, pulpy, nostalgic novel, this will
do. It is fun.
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