The 6 Messiahs

by Mark Frost

Hardcover, 1995

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

William Morrow & Co (1995), Edition: 1st, 404 pages

Description

The sequel to The List of 7 Ten years have passed since Doyle first met the brilliant Jack Sparks and together they cracked the deadly case of the List of 7. Inspired by his friend, Doyle went on to create Sherlock Holmes, the character that has since made him a wealthy and celebrated man. Now off to America for his first book tour, Doyle is joined by his impetuous younger brother and a cryptic Irish priest. During their voyage, the men are stalked by an otherworldly order of assassins attempting to steal a precious piece of the ship's cargo: a priceless book of ancient mysticism. The Book of Zohar is the first piece of a lethal puzzle that will draw Doyle across the young nation. Doyle and his companions track the paths of six mysterious strangers who are united by a single, eerie dream: a black tower rising out of a wasteland and a river of blood. As their trails converge at the source of this terrifying vision, Doyle and company confront an evil so dark and profound that it threatens to obliterate the very fabric of the world.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ebwinelotr

A sequel to The List of Seven, this is a fantasy/horror/thriller starring the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle, and his friend Jack Sparks, the prototype for Holmes, who has also come back from his near-death experience at the Falls. Unlike Holmes, however, Sparks is a

shadow of who he was, and Doyle, on an American reading tour with his brother, finds himself drawn into a sinister conspiracy that involves the theft of the six major religious texts and the end of times.

An engrossing read, and a wonderful cast of characters, actual and fictional, but I missed the iconic London setting of the first book of the series.

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LibraryThing member 5hrdrive

An interesting premise, but doesn't go anywhere. How are these six people connected? Where did the Reverend come up with his strange ideas? How did he acquire his strange powers over people? What in heaven's name does he hope to achieve? WE NEVER FIND OUT...

LibraryThing member williemeikle

When I first read THE SIX MESSIAHS, I was more than a bit disappointed with it. I wanted a sequel to the excellent LIST OF SEVEN. I wanted Jack Sparks and Conan Doyle, hunting down the bad guy, with all the appropriate Sherlockian nods and winks that would entail. What we get instead is a dizzying

host of characters, hardly anything of Jack Sparks, and not much at all of Doyle.

If you're looking for Sherlock in this one, you're really looking in the wrong place. THE SIX MESSIAHS is a different beast entirely. It's more about suffering, and redemption, and the power of cults than anything else.

On this second reading I got the point a lot quicker than on the first, and I raced through it. Frost is great at pacing, has an eye for what makes a character memorable, and an inventive imagination that keeps the whole thing careering along.

There's a bit too much head-hopping around the point of view characters for my liking, and even a couple of places where it gets confusing trying to figure out which head we're supposed to be in at the time. And in the rush to the finish, a couple of characters get sidelined and don't really get to finish their part of the story.

But that's just quibbling. All in all, it's a fine romp. And despite what I said earlier, there is indeed a glimpse of Sherlock, right at the end, when the right thing is done and most of the threads are tied up.

I keep hoping for another sequel from Frost to see what Doyle gets up to next, but the new Twin Peaks will do just fine in the meantime.

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