death cloud
by Andy lane
character analysis
plot
After a few days of holidays Sherlock discovers that his brother Mycroft has hired him an unusual American tutor named Amyus Crowe. During their first lesson together Sherlock finds a dead body on the Holmes' estate and witnesses the same cloud surrounding the body that Matty had previously seen. He detects a yellow powdery stuff around the body and takes a sample of it.
With Matty's help he tracks down a warehouse which has links to one of the deceased, and almost dies in the warehouse when the villains set it alight. Holmes escapes the building, and determines that he must travel to Guildford and locate an expert in exotic diseases who might help identify the yellow substance. He, therefore, sets out with Matty on his barge to Guildford, and although they are attacked along the way by the villains, they nevertheless make it to his destination and discovers that the yellow substance is bee pollen. On the way back home he goes his tutor's home, where he meets Crowe's daughter Virginia.
A few days later Sherlock is drawn to a fair, where he is forced to be in a boxing match, from were he is kidnapped and questioned by the unseen Baron Maupertuis until he is rescued by Matty, and the pair go to his tutor's home. Knowing that the Baron has left his hind out, Sherlock, Matty, Crowe and Virginia determine to follow and locate the Baron.
They find out that the Baron is shipping a weapon from a London wharf, and after a lot of chases, Sherlock and Virginia are kidnapped to France by the Baron, and further questioned. The Baron attacks Sherlock as Mr. Surd attacks Virginia. The pair escape and meet up with Crowe and Matty and set out to stop the Baron from trying to destroy the British Army. They find a fort, where Mr. Surd is in. Sherlock gets in a fight with Mr. Surd, and Sherlock kills him by shoving him into a beehive, resulting in multiple stings from angry bees. They throw pollen in the air, and burn it. The fort falls down.
Sherlock wakes up. He meets Crowe and Matty and they discuss a few things. He looks outside the window and sees a man in a carriage, presumably the Baron.
setting and summary
The year is 1868, and Sherlock Holmes is 14. His life is that of a perfectly ordinary army officer’s son: boarding school.
But all that is about to change. With his father suddenly order to India, and his mother mysteriously ‘unwell’, Sherlock is sent to stay with his uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire.
So begins a summer that leads Sherlock to uncover his first murder, a kidnap, corruption and a smart evil villain, this is the summary