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A review by ravenousbibliophile
The Devil's Due by Bonnie MacBird
4.0
Blurb: A love letter to pastiche lovers.
This was my third (of hopefully five) Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels this year, and it was by far the best one. Also, it was my introduction to Macbird's body of work, and that only served to enhance my appreciation for her writing. For not only did she write a great Sherlock Holmes story, but also she wrote a story that can pretty much act as a standalone for someone who hasn't read the previous two books in the series.
The style and construction of the plot, oscillates between an imitation and evocation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There are moments where the city of London, or certain aspects of life in Victorian England are described that seem lifted straight out of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories such as 'The Hound of Baskervilles' or 'The Sign of Four' but these moments are tempered with Macbird's own voice and energy which make the story very much her own. The gentle (and often inexplicable) interplay of characters and circumstances which form a tangled-web in the eyes of the reader only to come untangled at the end through Sherlock's deductions are reminiscent of the great Sherlockian adventures of old.
Perhaps the winning aspect of the book is how it has cast the problems of the modern-era (influence of popular-media) into a story set well before the advent of the internet. It goes to show that just like Sherlock Holmes, the very nature of things often evolve but seldom change. I'm bound to say that just like the Devil, Bonnie Macbird's Sherlock Holmes series deserves every credit that it is due.
This was my third (of hopefully five) Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels this year, and it was by far the best one. Also, it was my introduction to Macbird's body of work, and that only served to enhance my appreciation for her writing. For not only did she write a great Sherlock Holmes story, but also she wrote a story that can pretty much act as a standalone for someone who hasn't read the previous two books in the series.
The style and construction of the plot, oscillates between an imitation and evocation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There are moments where the city of London, or certain aspects of life in Victorian England are described that seem lifted straight out of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories such as 'The Hound of Baskervilles' or 'The Sign of Four' but these moments are tempered with Macbird's own voice and energy which make the story very much her own. The gentle (and often inexplicable) interplay of characters and circumstances which form a tangled-web in the eyes of the reader only to come untangled at the end through Sherlock's deductions are reminiscent of the great Sherlockian adventures of old.
Perhaps the winning aspect of the book is how it has cast the problems of the modern-era (influence of popular-media) into a story set well before the advent of the internet. It goes to show that just like Sherlock Holmes, the very nature of things often evolve but seldom change. I'm bound to say that just like the Devil, Bonnie Macbird's Sherlock Holmes series deserves every credit that it is due.