The List of 7 - Hardcover

Frost, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688122450 ISBN 13: 9780688122454

Publisher: William Morrow & Co., 1993

Synopsis

On Christmas Day 1884, a desperate plea from a mysterious woman leads Arthur Conan Doyle - struggling physician, aspiring writer, and part-time demystifier of the occult - to a seance in London's East End and into a fiendish and deadly trap. Stunned by a shocking display of black magic, Doyle witnesses a murder, nearly falling victim himself before being rescued by a secretive stranger: Jack Sparks, a man who claims to be special agent to Queen Victoria. He tells Doyle that he has been targeted by a diabolical coven of Satanists - the Dark Brotherhood.
As they track their attackers across the length and breadth of Britain, assailed by forces of darkness both human and supernatural, Conan Doyle and Sparks unmask a terrifying conspiracy that threatens not only the Crown but the very fabric of modern civilization. Their only clue: a list of seven names, the leaders of the Brotherhood.
Skeptical by nature and profession, Doyle labors to prove that the events he has witnessed - horrifying visions, zombies, ghouls, molecular alteration - are elaborate ruses with logical explanations. But if so, why? Simply because Doyle's anti-occultist writings, never even published, have inadvertently exposed the Brotherhood's intentions? Who is the elusive, seemingly superhuman mastermind behind the Seven? Most important, as Doyle continues to put his life in the hands of Jack Sparks, the question persists: Can Sparks be trusted?

About this title

Reviews

Occult forces of evil gather in Victorian England to scheme for world dominion in this lively but unconvincing period thriller by Twin Peaks co-creator Frost. The novel opens in London of 1884, where protagonist Arthur Conan Doyle, a moderately successful young doctor, unpublished author and part-time student of the supernatural, attends a seance at the request of an anonymous lady in distress. When the evening erupts into gruesome violence and murder, Doyle finds himself on the run, engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a cadre of ruthless satanists bent on incarnating the spirit of evil. He finds an ally in the mysterious, resourceful and supremely capable Jack Sparks, on secret assignment to the Queen. Sparks's own brother is the mastermind of the "Dark Brotherhood" they oppose, and his character will, much later, supply Doyle with the inspiration for his Sherlock Holmes. Despite the appreciable wit and inventive flourishes with which Frost invests his tale, there is too much in this fast-paced plot that simply does not make sense. Frost creates mystery through an unseemly vagueness of description, perhaps awaiting the special effects of the screen to flesh out elements of his narrative. In the novel, however, his characters never become more than clever conceits, and the prevailing attitude toward the spiritualism at its center is frustratingly wishy-washy. The much-ballyhooed shocker ending seems a tepid afterthought. Movie rights to Universal. Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs alternates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

History has it that Arthur Conan Doyle based Sherlock Holmes on his med-school teacher Dr. Joseph Bell. Not so, imagines Frost (co-creator of Twin Peaks) in his exhilarating, exuberantly melodramatic first novel: Holmes's real template was one Jack Sparks, Queen Victoria's most secret agent, who enlisted Doyle as his Watson to combat a conspiracy aimed at nothing less than incarnating Satan in human form. Doyle's a young M.D. and writer when he gets an anonymous letter imploring him to save ``an innocent's life'' from ``fraudulent'' practitioners of the ``spiritual arts''--a letter couched in the same Victorian language that Frost uses to tell his tale, and one appealing to the doctor's interest in psychic phenomena. It's this interest that has prompted Doyle to write about a ``Dark Brotherhood'' in a novel that's attracted the attention of the ``7,'' a real-life cabal of the black arts. The letter, sent by the cabal, takes Doyle to a s‚ance where a demon manifests and several are slain, and from which Doyle escapes with the help of a mysterious dynamo who calls himself Jack Sparks- -though, for his deductive powers, violin playing, and cocaine addiction, he might just as well be called ``Holmes.'' Sparks tells Doyle of the 7 and of their leader, Alexander Sparks, Jack's own brother and nemesis, the crime lord of London (i.e., Moriarity). The game is afoot--and wearing running shoes--as Sparks and Doyle race from one cliffhanger to the next, mixing it up with zombies, villains, giant leeches, and femmes fatales; exploring secret tunnels and a walled castle; crossing paths with Bram Stoker, Madame Blavatsky, Jack the Ripper, and Victoria Regina--even as The Dweller on the Threshold awaits his borning.... Unabashedly corny, and lifting ideas from a dozen sources, including Nicholas Meyer (whose new Holmes pastiche, The Canary Trainer, p. 821, it far outclasses)--but a jolly good adventure yarn for that. (Film rights to Universal) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This first novel by the cocreator of Twin Peaks arrives amid much hype and expectation. After submitting a manuscript to a London publisher, young Arthur Conan Doyle becomes the target of an occult group that bears a coincidental likeness to the subject of his novel. To Doyle's aid comes Jack Sparks, a mysterious and resourceful figure who ultimately serves as Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. With enough twists and last-minute escapes to make it thrillingly palatable, The List of Seven seems a sure bet to climb the best seller lists. In the spirit of hyperbole, the publisher is planning to seal an epilog into the back cover to keep nosy Parkers from spoiling the book's ending. As if this were not enough to keep patrons drooling, Universal Studios is planning to release a movie version in summer 1994. All popular collections should purchase. Literary Guild main selection; Mystery Guild, Doubleday, and Science Fiction book club alternates; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93. --Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co.
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688122450
• ISBN 13: 9780688122454
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368