Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell by Paul Kane

Rebellion/Solaris, 2016

ISBN: 9781781084557

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Sherlock Holmes and Cenobites sound like a combination that would be truly awful together, but I have to say, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell blew my assumptions out of the water. With an introduction by Barbie Wilde, I was put at ease.

The book opens with a man solving the Lament Configuration. That man is Sherlock Holmes.

It’s 1895. Moriarty is declared dead, and Holmes miraculously survives the tumble off the cliff in his final adventure. Holmes and Watson are engaged by Laurence and Juliet Cotton, newlyweds with a strained relationship, to investigate the disappearance of Laurence’s brother, Francis. Their investigation leads them to look into a series of unusual missing persons’ cases, in which the missing parties vanish in impossible ways. One man disappears from a locked room, the only traces left behind being the faint scent of vanilla.

This is just the beginning of an investigation that will draw the pair into contact with an organization whispered about and known only as ‘The Order of the Gash.’ Clues lead the sleuth and the doctor to an underground club that services the most depraved of the upper crust of society, a sinister asylum in France, and the underworld of London. They encounter shady operators, meet old acquaintances in the strangest of circumstances, enter a world of depravity and pain, and make dangerous associates—the Cenobites, from hell.

Kane, previously editor of the tribute anthology Hellbound Hearts, clearly has a familiarity with and love of the Hellraiser universe. In this book, in addition to new Cenobites, Kane includes storylines and characters from Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart, as well as the Hellraiser films.  I was pleasantly surprised to also find an authentic Holmes feel and pacing that shows a familiarity with the characters and style of Holmes’ stories. Kane was able to keep with the atmosphere and period sensibilities of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s style while still creating the feel of Clive Barker’s world of Cenobites–  and he makes it work. Recommended. Reader’s advisory note: Fans of both Sherlock Holmes and Hellraiser should enjoy this. Other horror/Holmes crossover titles include Sherlock Holmes: The London Terrors and others by William Meikle, and Gaslight Arcanum, edited by Kim Newman and Kevin Cockle.

Contains: mentions of body horror, allusions to sexual activity and gore

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker