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thereaderred's review
3.0
So after reading this author's very own collection of pastiches in 'The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes' I thought this was a vast improvement compared to the former, not that to say the writing was bad but the plotlines were a bit too fan fiction-y for my tastes. But while this was not Conan Doyle per-se I really enjoyed this collection significantly.
The first two stories 'The Loss of the Sophy Anderson' and the titular 'Crosby Murders' were entertaining Sherlockian romps that greatly captured the personalities of the main protagonists in addition to the spirits of the original works and the big reveal at the end, while somewhat predictable, had more weight and relevancy than in 'An American Adventure' (featured in 'Secret Files') where *SPOILER* the culprit was the sister of the real life inspiration for Holmes, Joseph Bell, who Holmes himself had supposedly teamed up with.
As for the last story in this collection 'Mycroft's Great Game' it's an interesting little number as of what truly happened when Holmes and Moriarty made their infamous plummet down the Reichenbach Falls, with Sherlock's brother, Mycroft, giving his account of the details. This was a decent tale and lighter than the two previous stories.
I liked how the author introduced Mycroft's character and how he explained his account as if you was hearing it from the lips of him and not another one of Watson's unpublished manuscripts, but some of the reocurring problems from the other collection reared their ugly heads this time around because somewhere along the line I just had a few thoughts about the story that just didn't gel.
There was some noticeable inconsistancies between key narrative elements directly established in the Conan Doyle stories (which I have no doubt a hardcore Sherlock fan would do a double take at) that were just contradictory or just make no sense in retrospect, otherwise it could make for an interesting tale in an alternate universe world of the canon.
I was looking forward to this story the most because I thought it was a neat concept, like how Mycroft would handle the absense of his considerably more famous sibling, interacting with other characters etc. but I just thought the plot became over elaborate with not much attention to detail being paid, thus becoming somewhat contrived in the final result and, in my opinon, the weakest story.
Despite this and my ramblings on the final story, I have to say I really enjoyed this collection of stories which were fast paced and for the most part, fun!
The first two stories 'The Loss of the Sophy Anderson' and the titular 'Crosby Murders' were entertaining Sherlockian romps that greatly captured the personalities of the main protagonists in addition to the spirits of the original works and the big reveal at the end, while somewhat predictable, had more weight and relevancy than in 'An American Adventure' (featured in 'Secret Files') where *SPOILER* the culprit was the sister of the real life inspiration for Holmes, Joseph Bell, who Holmes himself had supposedly teamed up with.
As for the last story in this collection 'Mycroft's Great Game' it's an interesting little number as of what truly happened when Holmes and Moriarty made their infamous plummet down the Reichenbach Falls, with Sherlock's brother, Mycroft, giving his account of the details. This was a decent tale and lighter than the two previous stories.
I liked how the author introduced Mycroft's character and how he explained his account as if you was hearing it from the lips of him and not another one of Watson's unpublished manuscripts, but some of the reocurring problems from the other collection reared their ugly heads this time around because somewhere along the line I just had a few thoughts about the story that just didn't gel.
There was some noticeable inconsistancies between key narrative elements directly established in the Conan Doyle stories (which I have no doubt a hardcore Sherlock fan would do a double take at) that were just contradictory or just make no sense in retrospect, otherwise it could make for an interesting tale in an alternate universe world of the canon.
I was looking forward to this story the most because I thought it was a neat concept, like how Mycroft would handle the absense of his considerably more famous sibling, interacting with other characters etc. but I just thought the plot became over elaborate with not much attention to detail being paid, thus becoming somewhat contrived in the final result and, in my opinon, the weakest story.
Despite this and my ramblings on the final story, I have to say I really enjoyed this collection of stories which were fast paced and for the most part, fun!
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