Moriarty

Description

Bestselling British novelist John Gardner published two books purporting to be the true history of Professor James Moriarty, archenemy of Sherlock Holmes, the Napoleon of crime. The books - The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty - were praised as stand-alone volumes set in a vividly accurate Victorian London and a stunning vision of the underworld of the time, inhabited by the kind of men and women who lived and preyed on the society of the late 19th century. Now it is the turn of the century and Moriarty has been away from London for several years, realizing his plans to set up crime syndicates in major U. S. cities. He is suddenly called back to London where his vast criminal society has been overrun by a rival concern led by the shadowy Sir Jordan 'Mad Jack' de Levant - a supposed gentleman hoodlum who is acting on behalf of the leaders of well-known criminal elements in France, Italy, Spain and Germany. Moriarty lives again and revolts against the upstart criminals who have attempted to oust him from his rightful place as king of all criminal endeavour.

John Gardner was born in Seaton Delaval, Northumbria. He graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge and volunteered for service in the Royal Marines during World War II. After the war, Gardner was ordained and served as a priest for seven years before deciding he did not have the proper vocation and withdrawing from the clergy. Gardner is the author of the acclaimed Boysie Oakes series and fourteen James Bond novels.

'One of the most cruel crime bosses in fiction' Scotsman. * Scotsman * 'Gardner revels in getting the details of, say, the food or the thieves' slang of the period right... This is the world of the Holmes stories, but fascinatingly viewed from the bottom up, through criminal's eyes' Sunday Times. * Sunday Times *