BOOK REVIEW: An Opened Grave 

 

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by: Laura V. Hilton

Dancing Word Reviewer

 

Title: An Opened Grave

Author: Frank James

Publisher: The Salt Works

ISBN:  193408000-4

Genre: Inspirational/Mystery/Apologetics

 

Sherlock Holmes is unexpectedly lured from retirement by what appears to be a simple missing-persons case. He is correct, on more than one occasion. During the investigation, Sherlock Holmes personally experiences an event for which there can be no logical explanation, and ultimately realizes that he, Sherlock Holmes, is as lost as anyone.

 

Equipped with a time machine, accompanied by his ever-present cohort Dr.
Watson, and armed with a superbly logical brain (and a loaded revolver) Sherlock Holmes investigates the most controversial, ancient mystery of all time – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

And what would a Sherlock Holmes mystery be without a villain? Facing imprisonment, scoundrels, slavery, and starvation, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must outmaneuver a treacherous villain who turns their journey into a game of cat-and-mouse. Has Sherlock Holmes finally met his match? Read this book to find out!

 

While the back cover declares that An Opened Grave “is not intended to be a treatise on apologetics,” the text itself begs to differ. In extended conversations with Dr. Watson and other characters in the book, the classical arguments for the existence of God, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and other apologetical issues are placed in the mouth of the eccentrically logical detective, and the rebuttals are supplied by the likewise agnostically-minded Watson.

 

While the author attempts to reproduce the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the effect is somewhat forced, and the apologetical arguments do not flow from the mouth of Holmes with any sense of familiarity. Most disappointing to me was the lack of any definitive conclusion, and the abrupt manner in which An Opened Grave leaves the reader with a miscellany of logical arguments, without once referring to the ultimate issue of faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Again referring to the back cover: this “is a book that most likely will find its way into the hands of doubting friends and family members of the Christian audience.” Without a clear reference to the atoning work of Jesus Christ, I’m afraid the doubts will only be multiplied. 230 pages. $14.95.