J. R. Rain

I learned to read by secretly snatching my mother’s early 20th-century editions of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Since then, the fascination with anything Holmes has never left me. Many have tried to spin further tales of Holmes and Watson; some did well, others failed miserably. This one, sadly, falls into the latter category.

The story is rather convoluted, albeit light in detail. Watson is reduced to a mere admiring fan, trapped in a constant "reverie and renewed admiration for Mr. show more Holmes", while Holmes himself is more of a generic action hero than a detective. In one particularly jarring scene, "Holmes delivered a punishing uppercut to the man’s jaw" so hard his feet left the ground, before the detective "delivered an unforgiving heel kick to his jaw to finish him off." This isn't the Holmes of Baker Street; it's a Victorian John Wick.

The writing is mediocre at best. It begins with a clumsy "find-and-replace" job of the opening of “A Study in Scarlet”, even bizarrely changing St. Bartholomew’s Hospital to "Bart’s Clothing" (apparently Watson was a tailor before he was a surgeon?).

»On that very same day, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when I was tapped on the shoulder by a young man I recognized as having worked as a dresser under me at Bart’s Clothing before the war.«

When a book can't even decide if its protagonist is a doctor or a clothes shop manager, you know you're in for a rough ride.

The authors also have Watson break the fourth wall to tell the reader, "you all know how things progressed from there... don’t you?" It’s a move that feels less like a narrative choice and more like the authors admitting they couldn't be bothered to write their own setup.

Whenever the authors felt they found a "great" old-sounding word or phrase, they used it ad nauseam. For example, Watson often “ejaculates” words - at one point even "ejaculating his name in surprise" - or relentlessly refers to Holmes as his "dear friend and colleague" and "good friend" in a way that feels utterly performative.

Furthermore, the prose is riddled with jarring anachronisms that shatter any sense of the period, such as Watson mentioning having "regular sessions with a mental therapist" to handle his transition back to London. The problem: this kind of therapy hadn’t been developed yet.

There are huge information dumps at several points in the novel that attempt to make up for the lousy storytelling but only succeeded to further annoy me. Even the central mystery is resolved almost instantly through a lazy application of "backward reasoning" that feels less like deduction and more like a script skip.

If you’re a Holmes connoisseur, stay away. One star out of five.

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Lee Jordan is not your typical leading man. He's blind, deaf, and mute as a result of an explosion during the time he was a homicide detective. Now, he is being asked to apply his investigative skills to a series of disappearances. I enjoyed the first part of the book. It was interesting to see how a person with so many disabilities is able to live a somewhat independent life. It was also good to see that he could feel useful again. The story took an odd turn with some mystical way of seeing show more based on resonance, that though explained, seemed kind of off the wall to me. I wasn't aware that this author wrote paranormal series so it seemed odd for it to jump in partway through the book. show less

I really enjoyed these books and cannot wait for more. Jim Knighthorse is fun to read and you can tell that Mr. Rain has alot of fun writing these. I've always enjoyed his sense of humor in all his books but he really shines with this series. Jim Knighthorse is a Private Investigator, a really big guy who used to play football for UCLA, he's arrogant, full of himself and is sexy and he knows it. Of course he's also a very damaged person with a very cold father (and I mean really cold - like show more potential serial killer cold lol). His mom was murdered violently when he was a boy and he found her body. I really like how human all of Rain's chracters are. They're good but flawed. Heroic yet troubled. Each book has it's own story that wraps up nicely while the series as a whole has an over-arc'ing storyline so there's no cliffhangers that force you to purchase more books. Just one good story after another. If you like Detective mysteries then you'll probably like these books. If you enjoy a bit of the supernatural then you'll definetly enjoy most of J.R. Rains books. I find his writing style very refreshing and professional. Honestly I've had more fun reading his books than anything else I have read in a long time. I'm hooked and now a lifelong fan. Great series. I'm just going to close with one word: Zumbooruk! show less

I found this short mystery shockingly good. Saw other reviews that found it depressing. Despite the fact that the main character is definitely dying, I found the book to be extremely uplifting because of the dignity with which the character was being allowed to die on his own terms, plus the pure love of the character Numi. The mystery was decent, but it was the main character's internal dialogue that made this book for me. Very well written.