The Bartered Brides

The newspapers are shouting that Sherlock Holmes is dead, and only those closest to him know the truth. But he needs to stay dead in order to track down and eliminate the remaining members of Moriarty's gang. That leaves only the Watsons, Nan, and Sarah to try to deal with Sherlock's usual cases. Right now they have a very difficult one.

Someone is dumping the headless bodies of young women in the sewer. Each is dressed in what could be a wedding gown. Lestrade is baffled and none of the Watsons or Nan and Sarah's magical or psychical talents are giving them any help in finding out who or why this is happening.

Meanwhile, we know that a Spirit Master named Spencer is the killer. He is a high-up member of Moriarty's gang and has been show more trying to hold it together. He also managed to grab Moriarty's spirit and confine it in a talisman and now is working very hard to find a new body for him and transfer him from the spirit world back to the physical world.

Spencer is binding these young women to him in a sort of wedding ceremony and using their power to fill batteries he has developed. He needs the power if he is ever to reanimate Moriarty. Spencer is also trying to keep the Watsons out of the way. In fact, he sends a basket of poison fruit along with a compulsion spell in a Snow White attempt to kill Mary Watson after a physical attack on John is unsuccessful because of Nan and Sarah's intervention. Nan and Sarah's birds do manage to foil the attempt on Mary but they are pretending she is dead to give them more working room.

Nan and Sarah learn more about their abilities in this one as they use all their talents to locate Spencer and get rid of him.

I like the worldbuilding in this story. It is a very well detailed Victorian world that surrounds the various adventures and magical elements. Even some commentary on woman's rights, or rather the lack of them is inserted into this story in a few places and in the person of a spirit named Caro. Gemma Dawson does a great job with the voices and the pacing. show less

Sherlock Holmes has been reported killed, although a few associates know better. Unfortunately, there is a necromancer in London. The Watsons and psychics Sarah and Nan are called in when the headless bodies of young women start turning up, but they do not have anything like Holmes's expertise. But they do have other skills....

Not as good as the rest of Lackey's Elemental Masters series, but not awful. Fans will want to read this.

I must be a glutton for punishment, because I keep returning to this series despite the fact that it's lost its original luster. I'm beyond tired of the Sarah and Nan storyline. Every book with them as the central characters tends to be repetitive, and using Arthur Conan Doyle's characters as supporting cast has become quite tired too.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until something changes: I wish Mercedes Lackey would return to the fairy tale retellings. THOSE are the Elemental books that I fell in love with, and they're definitely stronger stories than these Holmes/horror/Girl Power novels that she's been churning out for the last few years.

Holmsian horror!

Lackey's Sherlock Holmes trope with a touch of horror is vastly engaging.
Sherlock and Moriaty have perished over Ravensbruck Falls. Elemental masters John and Mary Watson, occultists Nan Killian and Sarah Lyon-White find themselves enmeshed in a struggle with a necromancer who just might have had links to Moriaty's network. Headless bodies are beginning to turn up, dressed in white garments. Brides! But for what purpose?
Disturbing developments see the Watson's targeted by the unknown adversary. All must be vigilant as danger looms on all sides.
The introduction of the spirit Caro, is an interesting addition to the mix. Sarah and Nan along with their feathered companions, Neville the raven and Grey the African parrot, show more fierce protectors of the girls in the occult adventures.
I initially started reading with a somewhat jaundiced attitude but as the story moved on I became well and truly ensnared in its twists and turns.

A NetGalley ARC show less

Bluebeard and Holmes and Magic, Oh My! I thoroughly enjoy Holmesian fiction, so I expected to like this book and I did. Holmes is really least in sight, so Nan, Sarah, and Watson shine in this tale. And Lestrade? My favorite quotation was about him: Sarah had thought Lestrade couldn’t get any redder. She had been wrong. He turned from the color of a strawberry to the color of a beet.

So with all this going for it, why was I not totally thrilled with the book? I think the gruesomeness of the murders got to me. And for the first time that I can remember Mercedes Lackey has put an easily recognizable political figure in the book and done it in a highly uncomplimentary fashion. I read fantasy to escape from some of the unpleasantness in show more real life and don't enjoy real life rearing its ugly head so obviously.

Fans of the series will most likely enjoy the book as will those who enjoyed the earlier Holmes books in the series. show less

Mildly enjoyable - it's the girls again, which is great, but it's Sherlock and allies again, which is rather boring. Not so Lovecraftian, though, so that's better. A necromancer, which they explain as a Master of the Fifth Element, Spirit. And then they (Alderscroft, in particular) manage to pin the girls down as Elemental Mages rather than as using a completely different system of magic. I wonder if they'll decide that all the occultists, psychics, etc are Spirit Mages? That would explain why they're so "rare" - just not recognized. The fairy tale is Bluebeard (which I guessed from the title, anyway). Neville gets to be a very dangerous bird, on several occasions - much to his pleasure. It's not bad, but definitely not a favorite.

Not quite as bad as The Wizard of London but it is a slog until the final action scene, with the obvious course of action stumbled upon until almost the last minute. The characters aren't interesting enough or the emotional weight heavy enough to involve me in this Bluebeard retelling, though the basic plot had some promise.