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ulharper1's review
4.0
Let me start this by saying I never read mysteries but I have read Sherlock Holmes. This my friends is a Sherlock Holmes novel, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was being channeled in this short story by Mr. Poling and his nifty authorship.
Somehow the voice of Mycroft, Sherlock's brother, is simply legit. I never got the sense that I wasn't reading a Holmes story. Very impressive. To be frank, the language of the time was captured elequently, not that I know anything about the language at that time but since it didn't bug me to death it must have been done pretty well.
From the opening page I knew that I would finish this story, and this comes at a time when I just have a hard time finishing stories for whatever reason. From what I can tell, hey, a lot of stories kind of suck.
But not this one.
Here, one more good thing about this short story: For some reason I thought Sherlock would take over this story...and he didn't. It's truly about Mycroft. I reasonably thought it would be about Holmes but told through Mycroft, kind of like us seeing Gatsby through the eyes of Nick. Glad it didn't turn out that way. fun stuff.
With all that said, like I said, it's really not my genre to read. Time pieces are fine and dandy. Mysteries are cool too. But there is another element in here. Noir. Noir I have an issue with, and here's why. In noir, specifically when it's in this story form (in my opinion), the reader spends too much time in a character's head. It has nothing to do with the authorship, but everything to do with the genre. My comments also speak to my personal issue with first person narrative. I'm only detailing the reasons why this story did not get a five rating.
Finally, I wish it were longer. But to tell y'all honestly, there was never a subplot developed to justify it being longer. I just liked the writing so much I could have read a lot more of it.
Just sayin.
If you want to check it out, stop by Amazon. Right now it's only about a buck. Totally worth the price.
Somehow the voice of Mycroft, Sherlock's brother, is simply legit. I never got the sense that I wasn't reading a Holmes story. Very impressive. To be frank, the language of the time was captured elequently, not that I know anything about the language at that time but since it didn't bug me to death it must have been done pretty well.
From the opening page I knew that I would finish this story, and this comes at a time when I just have a hard time finishing stories for whatever reason. From what I can tell, hey, a lot of stories kind of suck.
But not this one.
Here, one more good thing about this short story: For some reason I thought Sherlock would take over this story...and he didn't. It's truly about Mycroft. I reasonably thought it would be about Holmes but told through Mycroft, kind of like us seeing Gatsby through the eyes of Nick. Glad it didn't turn out that way. fun stuff.
With all that said, like I said, it's really not my genre to read. Time pieces are fine and dandy. Mysteries are cool too. But there is another element in here. Noir. Noir I have an issue with, and here's why. In noir, specifically when it's in this story form (in my opinion), the reader spends too much time in a character's head. It has nothing to do with the authorship, but everything to do with the genre. My comments also speak to my personal issue with first person narrative. I'm only detailing the reasons why this story did not get a five rating.
Finally, I wish it were longer. But to tell y'all honestly, there was never a subplot developed to justify it being longer. I just liked the writing so much I could have read a lot more of it.
Just sayin.
If you want to check it out, stop by Amazon. Right now it's only about a buck. Totally worth the price.
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