The West End Horror

Finally, a wonderful Holmes pastiche! And I say that as someone who is probably a bit hyper-defensive of Holmes and Watson. Normally I'm ridiculously pedantic when it comes to my beloved Holmes and Watson...the fact that people even have the sheer nerve to try to impersonate or resurrect them rankles me automatically. As I've admitted openly in previous posts, when it comes to the Canon I'm a pedantic purist (and apparently an alliterative one at that). If the pair must be visually portrayed, only Jeremy Brett will do.

But this, I have to say, was pitch perfect in plot and narrative style and a great one-sitting read. You see, it's 1865 in London and a rash of strange occurrences are shaking up the dodgy theater district, including a show more murder, a socialite getting her throat slashed, two corpses disappearing along with a plastic surgeon. To solve the mystery, Holmes and Watson find themselves meeting a host of interesting people: Bram Stoker, Ellne Terry, Bernard Shaw, Henry Irving, and of course, Oscar Wilde.

Oh, and the suspect's name? You guessed it: Jack.

For more of my reviews, particularly on mystery character series that take place in England, the British Raj or Ireland, please visit my blog, The Body on the Floor, at www.bodyonthefloor.blogspot.com. show less

I quite enjoyed this one, and all the cameos Meyer dropped in. The story was enjoyable and did feel mostly like a quite authentic Conan Doyle tale.

I do also like that Meyer is willing to take chances and also push the boundaries of Sherlock's universe, but not too much. Sherlock doesn't meet Cthulhu or Batman or Donald Trump, so these are good things.

I do, however, think that it does go a touch too Hollywood. The cameos are fun, but in a slim volume, it does begin to feel a touch claustrophobic, a touch overstuffed.

Still, with no new Doyle yarns, Meyer is, at least for now, still my favourite go-to for the further adventures of Holmes and Watson.

This book suffers from too much of so many things. Too many real-world names dropped, for one thing. It was entertaining to a point, but I believe we could all feel certain that Bram Stoker wasn't going to turn out to be the killer, nor George Bernard Shaw, nor Gilbert and/or Sullivan.

Too many mentions of the game being afoot, when Holmes only ever actually said it once, in all of the ACD canon.

Far too many words spoken by a dying man in the denouement. Just after choking out a sob that "wracked all that remained of his miserable frame, and...almost carried him off then and there," the guy starts a ten-page monologue with "I was born not far from here, in Sussex, just over forty years ago..."

Far, far, far too many errors in the Kindle show more version of the book. Missing punctuation all over the place. "Holmes" as "Hohnes," "living" as "Irving," and worse: "Toe question took him by surprise" and "'Tour eyes!' I cried suddenly," just to name a few.

Despite it all, a decent Holmes pastiche. Dear God I hope the next one has been proofread. show less

I'm a sucker for books that combine fact with fiction. I'm also a theater geek, so this book seemed made for me. And it was, for about the first third of it. Holmes and Watson look into the murder of a theater critic by a young, not famous George Bernard Shaw. Taking them into the world of the theater seems a good fit for Holmes is a bit of an actor himself with all his disguises. The story is a fun, light read and I enjoyed it, but the solution, I felt, came from left field. It's not that it was impossible, it was, it's that it was melodrama at its highest. Still, a good plane read.

I love Sherlock Holmes as a character and have enjoyed many of Doyle's writings about the character as well as some other authors writing the character and of course I loved the movies.

By reading the title to this I had hoped Mr. Meyers had combined Sherlock with a plot more filled with horror elements. Unfortunately he didn't. The writing was enjoyable, the plot was intricate and I don't think anyone reading it could figure it out before hand (which is probably a negative for some mystery readers). What really turned me off was the long exposition at the end explaining the plot in detail. It almost seemed like he could have sent it in as the summary for his book. It seemed like way too much "telling" instead of "showing" which is like show more creative writing 101. show less

I really like Nicholas Meyer and Sherlock Holmes, so I wished I liked this book more. It doesn't have the fell of a Sherlock Holmes mystery and the inclusion of historical figures from the time just seems like a gimmick, rather than an organic part of the story.

A follow-on to the Seven Percent Solution, the West End Horror isn't quite up to the standard, as sequels often aren't. It's still a good Holmes/Watson adventure, and amusing for the historical cameos, but somehow the horror isn't quite as horrifying as one thought. It is amusing to read the author's depictions of George Bernard Shaw (was he REALLY like that?), Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Sullivan, and other genuine historical figures.