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A review by fakepumpkins
The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
If you have a passing awareness of the Sherlock Holmes canon, you'll recognize names, find the references and characters included somewhat enjoyable, and it's a fine story as is and a fairly well written book. If you have any more intimate knowledge of the SH canon, this book is a slog. Every "important" character from the past now has a child in nearly the exact same role as their parent. It's kind of an infuriatingly reference heavy story by that margin.
The story is The Sign of Four and the Empty House mixed together, with some references to other stories like the Greek Interpreter. The culprit of the crime is basically known from the start and the story more or less becomes about gaining a body of evidence to incriminate the culprit as opposed to gathering clues to figure out who did it and why. It's not a particularly moving mystery by that standard, most of the enjoyment from the story comes from watching Watson Jr and Sr trail behind Johanna as she does her detective thing.
Also a personal kind of poor taste note, in order to pull off the sense that Johanna inherited Holmes' deductive skills, they also had to make the argument that Moran Jr inherited his father's criminal inclinations. This is a trope that even in the lightest sense can affect children of people that have committed crimes, insinuating that criminal behavior can be passed from parent to child is frankly a disgusting thing to entertain. Plenty of other stories have handled this better, but unfortunately that isn't this story. Moran is a criminal because apparently all Morans are criminals.
The story is The Sign of Four and the Empty House mixed together, with some references to other stories like the Greek Interpreter. The culprit of the crime is basically known from the start and the story more or less becomes about gaining a body of evidence to incriminate the culprit as opposed to gathering clues to figure out who did it and why. It's not a particularly moving mystery by that standard, most of the enjoyment from the story comes from watching Watson Jr and Sr trail behind Johanna as she does her detective thing.
Also a personal kind of poor taste note, in order to pull off the sense that Johanna inherited Holmes' deductive skills, they also had to make the argument that Moran Jr inherited his father's criminal inclinations. This is a trope that even in the lightest sense can affect children of people that have committed crimes, insinuating that criminal behavior can be passed from parent to child is frankly a disgusting thing to entertain. Plenty of other stories have handled this better, but unfortunately that isn't this story. Moran is a criminal because apparently all Morans are criminals.