Joshua Potter

I am reminded of Simon Winchester. It is like an assembly of the foot notes that populate the Winchester books. That is a matter of personal taste. If you read and enjoyed those dense footnotes, you will love this.

Not a happily ever after. Sometimes life is not fair, only punctuated by delicious morsels of Venetian cuisine

Sir Arthur would be proud and pleased that modern writers do a better job than he did with the Holmes canon. Clearly he has given his readers both roots and wings.

This work employs the plot devices and style of the Flashman stories in all respects but date of writing. A modern Doyle cover can be a lot of fun. There are several authors in your collection who out- Doyle Doyle. What is the point of out- MacDonald Fraser-ing MacDonald Fraser? This work is too close a shave. I am exhausted and and left pining for the real thing -- Flashman.

A dystopian future with plot lines like clock work. Simple choices made in support of orthodoxies result in grave changes.Gene-ripping fuels the law of unintended consequences. I wish the narrator had asked for help in pronouncing Mandarin words. Considering the size of the production staff some one should have red-flagged the foreign language words. This one is not to be missed

Johnson writes with polished prose. In places, the narrative passages have the texture of short poems. His use of language suggests a skill long forgotten by many authors. The major plots are carefully braided and crafted into a rope that binds one to the story. Once started, you can not put it down. This author deserves every penny of his royalties -- and more.