46 pages • 1 hour read
Andrew LaneDeath Cloud
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Becoming Holmes
The Young Sherlock Holmes is an eight-book series that constitutes the legendary detective’s origin story. Consequently, many of the events in Death Cloud are geared toward developing Sherlock’s understanding of himself and the world. In this respect, Amyus Crowe is instrumental in shaping the sleuth’s mind. Initially, Sherlock displays keen powers of observation, which seems to be a family trait that he shares with Mycroft. However, he doesn’t know what to do with the information he collects. Crowe offers pivotal advice in this respect:
Information is the foundation of all rational thought. Seek it out. Collect it assiduously. Stock the lumber room of your mind with as many facts as you can fit in there. Don’t attempt to distinguish between important facts and trivial facts: they’re all potentially important (53).
The adult Homes will frequently admonish Watson about his tendency to see without understanding the meaning of what he observes. As the young detective finds himself beset with one difficulty after another, he comes to the obvious conclusion that his greatest weapon is his mind. As a teenager, he is automatically dismissed from the adult world. He is equally disadvantaged in physical fights against men who are trained killers or massively outweigh him. He even finds it difficult to defend himself in a duel against the baron, though a small army of puppeteers is moving the latter. He realizes he must take a different approach: “If Sherlock couldn’t beat Maupertuis with his skill as a swordsman, he would beat him with the power of his brain. All he had to do was work out a single vulnerability, something he could exploit” (276).
This realization becomes the central epiphany of the novel. Sherlock learns that his greatest weapon lies in the power of thought. In all his subsequent adventures, he will appeal to this faculty before he relies on any other. At another point, he also embraces the improbable as the best solution. As an adult, he is noted for saying, “When you have eliminated all which is impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” He demonstrates this tactic while trying to escape the baron’s estate on horseback. Logic would suggest that riding straight through the house is irrational, but the baron’s men have already blocked every other avenue of escape. Sherlock recalls a critical word of advice from Mycroft: “He could almost hear his brother Mycroft’s voice saying: ‘When all other options are impossible, Sherlock, embrace the one that’s left, however improbable it might be’” (187). Sherlock and Matty manage to escape by trusting the improbable and exiting the house through an unguarded gate. In depicting all these formative episodes, Death Cloud shows the reader the pivotal moments that transformed the young Sherlock into the detective he would become.
False Perceptions
As one might expect in any mystery novel, nothing is what it seems. Death Cloud abounds with instances of misperception. It is the task of the young detective and his friends to sort out appearance from the truth. In the book’s Prologue, Matty describes a lethal black cloud that seems to have a mind of its own. Only later do readers learn that this is actually a swarm of killer bees. Sherlock is originally fooled by the same misperception when he stumbles across a second corpse in the woods and finds a cloud of black smoke rising from the body.
Later, the local authorities will be fooled into concluding that the red boils on the faces of the victims are signs of a bubonic plague outbreak. This information, in turn, causes mild panic among the residents of Farnham. Rumors are finally quelled when Sherlock seeks out the real facts of the case. His conversation with Professor Winchcombe places everything in the proper perspective. A simple garment factory proves to be the headquarters for an organization that seeks to destroy the British Army and Britain’s overseas empire along with it.
Not only are the bees and their purposes misperceived, but many of the novel’s characters are not who they seem to be. Mrs. Eglantine may be a spy or the operative of a nefarious organization, but she plays the role of a devoted family servant. Crowe is not really a tutor. He has come to England on government business with the intention of apprehending American war criminals. When Sherlock first spies Virginia, all he sees is a figure on horseback, which he takes for a man. The girl herself rides astride and, on one occasion, dresses as a boy to escape scrutiny. Just like her father, Virginia isn’t what she appears to be.
The greatest instance of misperception is created by Baron Maupertuis. He already appears sinister when Sherlock first glimpses him: “Sherlock was momentarily shocked to see a pale, almost skeletal face framed with wispy white hair staring at him with unblinking eyes that were small and pink, like the eyes of a white rat” (35). While the baron’s face is depicted as revolting, the full horror of his appearance doesn’t become apparent until Virginia tears down the draperies that hide his figure in a darkened room. Seeing that he is a puppet supported by a wooden frame and strings is the ultimate lesson in not trusting appearances. Sherlock’s future role as a professional detective will depend on his ability to look beyond the obvious to find the truth that hides in the darkness.
The Value of Allies
When Death Cloud opens, the reader is introduced to an isolated boy. Sherlock has made no real friends at boarding school, and his life at home is equally isolated. This isolation intensifies when Sherlock first goes to live at Holmes Manor. His aunt and uncle are elderly, and the housekeeper hates him for some unknown reason. His brother is a remote presence who writes occasionally from London.
To a large extent, Death Cloud is Sherlock’s introduction to human connection. His lifeline to Mycroft through letters becomes the first link in a chain of personal associations. Mycroft recommends Crowe as Sherlock’s tutor. Crowe offers Sherlock a listening ear and plenty of useful advice about how to get along in life. Crowe’s daughter intrigues Sherlock, and he learns to ride a horse through her suggestions. Even more important is Sherlock’s association with Matty. The young orphan first approaches Sherlock, as so many future clients will do. Matty wants Sherlock’s advice about the mysterious black cloud, and the latter instinctively agrees to solve the riddle if he can.
While the case of the black cloud offers an interesting intellectual puzzle for Sherlock’s busy brain, it also offers him the chance to make a real friend for the first time in his life: “He supposed Matty was a friend, but the thought confused him. He’d never really had any friends before—not at school, certainly, and not even back at the family house, the place he thought of as home” (106).
Sherlock is comfortable going alone, and it never occurs to him that engaging in a dangerous pursuit is best accomplished with the help of others who are looking out for him. Crowe has already learned this lesson in his capacity as a professional tracker and calls on any number of anonymous associates who offer information at critical points in the story. He tells Sherlock:
‘It would be nice if one person could always make a difference,’ Crowe replied without a trace of irritation, ‘but in this complicated world of ours you sometimes need friends, and you sometimes need an organization to back you up’ (191).
The adult Holmes will frequently make use of the Baker Street Irregulars as well as his contacts on the police force, most famously with his rival Inspector Lestrade. Young Sherlock eventually sees the value of allies when Matty rescues him from certain death on two occasions, and Crowe uses his contacts to help bring down the baron’s operation. The lesson of appreciating allies will serve Sherlock in good stead for the rest of his life.
