The Canary Trainer

Written by Nicholas Meyer


W.W. Norton & Company, 1993



A Waste of Time and Trees
Just as in Siciliano's novel, Watson is - once again - written out of the story. Events occur during a period of time when Holmes was believed to be dead, and he allowed this rumor to stay alive for his own reasons. He decides to take a "vacation" in Paris for rest from work and for some soul-searching. To pay the bills in the meantime, he finds work as a violinist at the Paris Opera House. He finds an old flame by the name of Sorelli who helps him keep his little secret while he tries to solve the mystery of a certain homicidal phantom - who refers to himself as "Nobody" in his notes - haunting the opera house.

Pardon the harsh comment in my title, but I cannot find much good in this one. It makes Forsyth's novel look excellent by comparison. It's an insult to both Erik and to Sherlock Holmes. I cannot see anything to convince me that Meyer bothered to do any research before sitting down to write this garbage! When he describes the Phantom, I get the impression that all he did was watch the movie Phantom of the Paradise long enough to see what the phantom's deformities are.

The only good things I can say about it is that the book cover is beautiful, I find it cute to imagine Holmes working undercover as a violinist at the Paris Opera House, and that I thought it was cool that Erik was nicknamed "Orpheus" by co-workers during the construction of the Paris Opera House. Other than that, I'd just as soon use it as cat litter than to torture myself into saying anything more about it. I'd rather not waste any more web space with this book!



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