The List of Seven
"The List of Seven" is a novel written by Mark Frost published by Hutchinson (London) on 1st september 1993. In this novel, the main character is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Plot summary
Christmas Day 1884. Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle is invited to a séance where two people are apparently murdered. Conan Doyle is saved by Armond Sacker, apparently a professor of Antiquities at Cambridge University. Conan Doyle contacts Claude Leboux, a friend and Scotland Yard Inspector to investigate, but the house where the séance took place has been redecorated. Conan Doyle gets a note from Helena Petrovna Blavatsky inviting him to a speech in Cambridge. He goes to Cambridge, unsuccessfully tries to track down Sacker, and then Conan Doyle attends Blavatsky's talk, and speaks with her afterwards. She warns him of dark spirits and after a meal he is attacked and is rescued by "Professor Sacker" for a second time who turns out to be Jack Sparks, Special Agent to the Crown. They head to Topping to the estate of one of the attendees at the séance, but find that it has become a madhouse. They find a clue to go to a publishing house called Rathbourne & Sons in London. On the journey back to London, Jack reveals that his brother Alexander may be the mastermind behind all their troubles. Jack thinks the attacks on Conan Doyle are prompted by a manuscript that Conan Doyle submitted to Rathbourne & Sons. When they get to the publishing house they find a list of the board of directors - the titular "List of Seven". A secret trapdoor leads them via an aqueduct to a storage room in the British Museum, which has had many statues stolen from it.
The next day they journey to Whitby to trace an acting troupe that may have been involved in staging the séance. There they meet Bram Stoker and an actress named Eileen, the last survivor of the doomed acting troupe. Stoker tells them that strange sights have been seen at the abandoned nunnery north of the town. They investigate, and witness an occult ceremony using the corpse of Sparks' father. Alexander Sparks confronts Conan Doyle and Eileen and invites them to dinner, where they meet the rest of the Seven. Their plan is to take control of Prince Edward, Duke of Clarence, third in line to the throne, and use him to enslave the world by putting a demon in his future child. Conan Doyle, Eileen and Jack fight with the Seven and with the help of a regiment of Royal Marines and Household Cavalry, they defeat the Seven.
Jack disappears to continue the hunt for Alexander who has gotten away, while Conan Doyle is granted an audience with Queen Victoria, who offers her thanks for his help. Conan Doyle later learns that Jack and Alexander fought and fell over the Reichenbach Falls, with neither surviving. Conan Doyle decides to commemorate Jack by creating a character in the image of his friend: Sherlock Holmes.
Allusions to Sherlock Holmes
- Jack Sparks is a model for Sherlock Holmes : ascetic, aloof, mentally and physically extraordinary. Sparks is also addicted to cocaine, although Holmes indulges in his habit for recreation, while Sparks is ashamed of his addiction.
- On the train to Whitby Sparks also uses a magnifying glass, smokes a pipe and play strange music on his violin, characteristics similar to Sherlock Holmes.
- Alexander Sparks is a model for Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, James Moriarty, a criminal mastermind at the centre of all the London underworld's plans.
- The scene described by Larry when Jack and Alexander go over the Reichenbach Falls together is quoted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories The Final Problem and The Empty House where Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty die in the same manner, with Lady Caroline Nicholson, acting as a sniper, taking the place of Colonel Sebastian Moran.
- Inspector Leboux can be seen as a role model for Inspector Lestrade (and also to a less extent Inspector Gregson), a good solid, unimaginative Scotland Yard inspector.
- Jack's Headquarters have allusions to a range of Sherlock Holmes stories, the V.R. on the wall (The Musgrave Ritual), "The Brain" can be seen as a model for Sherlock Holmes' "index of biographies" (The Empty House), the tailor's dummy is from The Empty House and Zeus is described similarly to The Hound of the Baskervilles. Additionally the chemical bench is seen in any number of Sherlock Holmes' stories and Jack's dressing room is Sherlock Holmes' bedroom with the various makeups and disguises.
- Jack's Regulars (who are made up mostly of criminals but with a few civilians) can be seen as a grown-up version of Sherlock Holmes' Irregulars.
- Professor Armond Sacker's name is based on the original name for Watson: Ormond Sacker on the manuscript.
- Rathbourne & Sons might be a slight reference to Basil Rathbone who famously portrayed Sherlock Holmes.
- The scene involving the home full of people driven mad is an allusion to The Devil's Foot in which "devil's foot" (a form of poison) is ignited in a closed room and causes the occupants to go mad and eventually die from inhalation of the deadly fumes.
