ekevka's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Somewhat uneven antology, some of which are good enough to go on their own, without even Holmes and/or Watson name attached.

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eserafina42's review

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2.0

I would have given this book three stars, but I found the last story to be just so excruciatingly long and dull that it knocks a star off for me. It seems that a lot of reviewers don't agree with me, since quite a few seem to be citing that story as the best, but I kept wondering if it would ever end. De gustibus non est disputandum!

strikingthirteen's review

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3.0

The Comfort of the Seine - Stephen Volk (2/5): So really Holmes was a normal guy until he met up with the so totally not dead Edgar Allan Poe and learned his mad skills of deduction from him. That's basically it and I just didn't particularly like it.

The Adventure of Lucifer's Footprints - Christopher Fowler (3/5): Rather average mystery with the supernatural twist. Just sort of happened and then ended and then it's alluded that there's some great rift between Holmes and Watson because of their differing opinions but really it's just Holmes telling Watson that he can't believe this because he's a man of science. Hardly a rift.

The Deadly Sin of Sherlock Holmes - Tom English (4/5): A book that makes even the most noble men do horrible things. It is fantastic and creepy and then Holmes actually needs to remove himself from England to get over (or reconcile) what happened. Loved that idea as an explanation for the Hiatus. there are also some lovely Holmes one liners here - commenting that the book must have flown up the chimney was snort worthy as well as his longing to put his bed on top of the huge hearth. I shall never be cold again! lol

The Color that Came to Chiswick - William Meikle (5/5): I love this one. Lovecraftian, pulpy, just damn odd. We have a creepy green substance that has turned up at a brewery. Is it intelligent? What happens to its victims is simply ghastly. Lovely spine chilling read

From the Tree of Time - Fred Saberhagen (2/5): Holmes and Dracula solve a mystery together. *shrug*

The Executioner - Lawrence C. Connolly (4.5/5): Holmes actually does die from the Fall and he is brought back by some obvious and not obvious all at once. Very well done and very faithful to both stories mentioned here. The conclusion with what became of Moriarty ends the story perfectly, and gives a more accountable reason for Holmes' three year absence.

A Country Death -Simon Kurt Unsworth (3.5/5): Holmes and another man are dead, bodies absolutely a mess. We find out exactly what Holmes was doing with the bees on the downs. Creepy is certainly the word.

Sherlock Holmes and the Great Game - Kevin Cockle (2/5): We're in the canadian arctic but really this is about how Holmes' powers really come from a zulu knife. That's about it, though I did like that watson got to be a crackshot in this one.

Sherlock Holmes and the Diving Bell - Simon Clark (5/5): come at once, the impossible is. The solution may seem easy enough but that glorious tension its just that. The real reason Holmes took the case as well is also very heartbreaking and well done.

The Greatest Mystery - Paul Kane (5/5): Murder suicide epidemic and Sherlock Holmes takes on death. Literally. Read this for that alone.

The house of blood - Tony Richards (1/5): immortal holmes in the modern day. Just too weird for me thw manitou made more sense.

The adventure of the six maledictions - Kim Newman (4/5): Moran and Moriarty get their hands on as many cursed objects as possible. Moran as the narrator is delicious. It is funny, creepy, and oh so well done.

unevendays's review

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4.0

As always in an anthology of stories, some appeal and some don't. The best story by far was Kim Newman's 'The Adventure of the Six Maledictions' - part of his Moriarty & Moran Victorian mash-up series - but unfortunately I'd already read it. Still, it's an excellent story (without it, I'd have given this 3 stars). I also enjoyed Christopher Fowler's effort - he has a good knack for Holmes stories. I also liked the story he wrote told from Mrs Hudson's point of view.

I enjoyed most of them, but at least two of the stories really, really irritated me by once again getting the drugs thing wrong. It's not complicated. Holmes uses cocaine and sometimes morphine when he hasn't got a case - when he's bored. He never uses it on a case. And he never takes opium. There's a whole sequence in (I think) The Man With the Twisted Lip where he assures a concerned Watson that he'd never touch the stuff because it clouds the mental faculties. Pedantic irritations aside, I enjoyed all the stories (apart from possibly the one with the magic knife that solves all of Holmes' cases for him...) a lot more than many Holmes pastiches I've read in the past. I was reading this concurrently with 'A Study in Sherlock' and it's this one I've kept reading and the other that has got left on a table to finish later.
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