![]() Needless to say, I will continue to read these books, not only out of compulsion, but also curiosity - to see if things get better.Ĭertainly not what the good doctor ordered! Get your copy from the library, if you must.Let me begin this review by saying that I am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. They make for the good reading companion if you are in the mood for light material that anchors on the familiar, but they will probably not satisfy your need for more complex storytelling. That is not to say that the series is not worth reading. Speaking of which, the mysteries are clunky, mostly predictable, and meandering. The whole enterprise seems like an overtly complicated fan-fiction rather than an original reinterpretation of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. It is as if the author wants to reassure themself, of their connection to the original stories. To make matters worse, the narrative often inserts an exposition or two, that links current events to the Holmes canon. What starts off as a cute literary premise quickly veers into the overused and banal. Hudson), Inspector Lestrade, Moran (s/o Sebastian Moran), and Toby Two (offspring of Toby, the canine helper from The Sign of Four). However, this derivation-by-heredity extends to other characters from the Holmes' canon as well - Miss Hudson (d/o Mrs. Watson - which is provided through John Watson Jr., who serves as her chronicler and later, husband. One can understand that Joanna Blalock would need a contemporary connection to Dr. The author's emphasis on inheritance is equally perplexing. ![]() ![]() Alas, that does not prove to be the case. As a widow, and an independent-minded woman in the Edwardian era, her character could have been provided with more complexity and layers than currently on display (three books into the series). While Goldberg uses a lot of ink to demonstrate the qualities Joanna inherits from Sherlock, the only demonstrated quality that she inherits from her mother seems to be her looks. However, what the readers receive, is ultimately a missed opportunity. The premise carries with it, a golden opportunity for flights of imagination, given the fact that the main protagonist has the freedom to inherit the best characteristics from two of the best-loved characters in Doyle's work. Given up for adoption shortly after her birth, Joanna grows up to inherit traits from both of ther parents, something she also passes on to her son, Johnny Blalock. It is revealed that Joanna is in fact, the daughter of Sherlock Holmes, a result of his ill-fated romance with Irene Adler, his onetime nemesis and lover. Joanna's keen eye for observation and vast accumulated knowledge on even the most arcane topics (especially for a woman in that day and age) greatly interest the Watsons, though for very different reasons. John Watson, the erstwhile chronicler of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and his son, Dr. The inspector on the case, one inspector Lestrade (son of the Inspector Lestrade,) is being assisted by Dr. Leonard Goldberg's contribution to this ever-expanding world of Holmes-inspired fiction focuses around one Joanna Blalock, a widow and a mother who finds herself in the center of a Scotland Yard investigation. This expansion has resulted in genre-bending collections that include works by writers like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, or the gender-bending Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas. Sherlock Holmes first made his appearance in the Strand Magazine in 1887, and continues to be a source of creative inspiration to this date - a search on the fan-fiction website archiveofourown returns more than 100,000 results! Numerous anthologies and Holmes-inspired fiction hit the bookstores to meet the demand for stories that expand the world that Doyle created. Perhaps no other character in literary fiction is considered as fascinating, as intriguing, and as timeless, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous literary creation.
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