My Five Word TL:DR Review : Holmes and Watson and Others

Okay, I have a confession. when I requested this title I was a bit giddy about the idea of a book with Sherlock Holmes and Dorian Gray, and, well, being a bit giddy, I may have failed to check if this was part of a series, and, yeah, it’s volume 3.  So, I decided to read it anyway, it seemed the decent thing to do after all and with that I picked it up and crashed straight into an already fairly well established series – what could possibly go wrong.   As it happens this was an entertaining read indeed, I enjoyed the writing and I really liked the inclusion of so many well known characters of classic fiction.  My one regret – that I messed up and didn’t start the series in the order that the author intended because I feel like I would have enjoyed this so much more if I’d only read the series from the start.

As the story begins we join Holmes and Watson as they pay a visit to the newly arrived Egyptian Circus.  The performance is outstanding but something seems slightly wrong about the whole set up and when one of the performers turns up dead and Holmes and Watson are called in they quickly discover that their suspicions were correct.

I can’t really tell you too much about the plot because it would involve spoilers so, as I seem to do more and more with these reviews, I shall stick to my feelings.

Well, firstly, I always enjoy a story with Holmes and Watson, well providing it’s well done of course, and I think the author does a good job of capturing their dynamic – although with some rather obvious changes that you’ll soon discover if you pick up this series.  I like the writing and we have Watson providing the narration through his journal entries and I enjoy this style of storytelling.

The pacing here is fast, it starts off contemplative as you would expect from a Holmes investigation but it pretty quickly gathers momentum and as the plot unfolds the pace is ramped up – to a very dramatic finale I might add.

In terms of characters, if you like your classics you’ll be blown off your feet with this.  Dracula, Mina, Dorian Gray and Jekyll and Hyde – to name just a few.  The author has totally gone for the horror vibe and in fact that dramatic conclusion I mentioned is absolutely crazily OTT.

Criticisms.  Well, I’ve mentioned the pacing and the crazy finale which are very entertaining, but, in being so all out action I felt like Holmes really took a back seat to all the fantastical goings on surrounding him.  In fact, on reflection, Holmes involvement is pretty subdued throughout.  Again, though, returning to my earlier confession about crashing into the series quite possibly I’m missing out on earlier references.

Overall, I found this very easy to read.  It certainly took me in directions I didn’t foresee.  I’m not sure it fully satisfied my Holmes and Watson itch but it was very entertaining.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3.5 of 5 stars