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A review by krisrid
In the Company of Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King
4.0
This is a short story collection. In the general way of things, I'm not a particular fan of short stories, because if I like the story, it feels too short, and if I don't, I feel like I've wasted limited reading time. But, I'm also a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and have liked "Holmes-esque" full-length stories I've read before, so I decided to give this a try. I liked it overall.
I would say that I enjoyed most of the stories. The ones I liked the best were: The Crooked Man, Dr. Watson's Casebook, The Adventure of the Laughing Fisherman, the Adventure of my Ignoble Ancestress, and the Problem of the Empty Slipper. The ones I liked least: Dunkirk, The Thinking Machine, Memoirs of Silver Blaze. The rest were somewhere in the middle.
As with any collection, there is a range of perspectives, lengths and writing styles. The editors, who have some pretty solid Holmes street-cred to stand on, did a great job of finding a selection of authors and getting a variety of stories from them.
I feel like the book does a respectable homage to the Holmes character and canon. Even thought many of the stories do not feature Holmes himself, he is mentioned or reflected in an appropriate way in each story. I don't feel any of the stories should embarass or disturb real Holmes fans, as long as they are willing to entertain "ish" as an approach to Holmes. I enjoyed the book. Especially because I listened to it in audiobook format, the shorter stories were nice and bite-sized for stopping and starting on my daily commute.
I would say that I enjoyed most of the stories. The ones I liked the best were: The Crooked Man, Dr. Watson's Casebook, The Adventure of the Laughing Fisherman, the Adventure of my Ignoble Ancestress, and the Problem of the Empty Slipper. The ones I liked least: Dunkirk, The Thinking Machine, Memoirs of Silver Blaze. The rest were somewhere in the middle.
As with any collection, there is a range of perspectives, lengths and writing styles. The editors, who have some pretty solid Holmes street-cred to stand on, did a great job of finding a selection of authors and getting a variety of stories from them.
I feel like the book does a respectable homage to the Holmes character and canon. Even thought many of the stories do not feature Holmes himself, he is mentioned or reflected in an appropriate way in each story. I don't feel any of the stories should embarass or disturb real Holmes fans, as long as they are willing to entertain "ish" as an approach to Holmes. I enjoyed the book. Especially because I listened to it in audiobook format, the shorter stories were nice and bite-sized for stopping and starting on my daily commute.