The novel that I have read is Moriarty by John Gardner. This is the very last masterpiece by John Gardner as he passed away days after this book was published on 2008. The main character of this story is Professor James Moriarty- arch enemy of detective Sherlock Holmes.
Professor James Moriarty was forced to flee England and live in America during the 1980s. He then returns to London in 1900 and found out that his huge criminal mansion has been raided, infiltrated and plundered by Idle Jack Idell, the crime boss in the story. He also possesses the evidence that one of his closest lieutenants, a member of his self-established Praetorian guard consisting of Lee Chow, Ember, Spear, and Terremant. Albert Spear and Terremant are the main members of the Praetorian Guard as they are street gangsters, mobsters and men who made decisions and had the last say.
As he is beginning to rebuild his empire, Moriarty realizes that Idle Jack seems to always be one step ahead of him and so he starts to look for the mole in his organisation. He now sets out to build another warehouse which will form the center of the empire.
Besides that, he has also shown cruelness in this story. The Professor ordered the harlot to divest herself of clothes and his voice cracking like a whip so that she wailed. He knows by doing so, the superstitious men and women who had worked for him would learn that he had danced with the devil, thus they would fear him even more than before. This is such an evil thing, I cannot even bear to think of it.
Last but not least, he also has another enemy by the name of Inspector Angus McCready Crow of the Metropolitan Police Force. Inspector Angus was extremely desperate to find out evidence of his false behavior in his business and it almost led to Moriarty's downfall.
"Sometimes when you have a year or two to spare I commend you the study of James Moriarty"-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
By:
How Qi Ming
4 Cergas
28 January 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment