Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Pigtail Twist

De: M J H Simmonds

Narrado por: Joff Manning

It is June 1884, a grey period for both the weather and Sherlock Holmes' mood. A lack of compelling cases has left him bored and close once again to the dull embrace of the needle. Less than a month earlier, however, he had astonished Inspector Lestrade and everyone around him by solving no less than six crimes in consecutive days.

At the 11th hour, Inspector Gregson arrives, with the promise of an impossible crime to solve. A murder has shattered the bucolic peace of the sleepy arable farmlands of Bedfordshire. The owner of a small stately home has been brutally killed while hosting a dinner party. But what and where is the murder weapon?

What follows is an epic, sweeping tale. From England to Africa, from poverty to wealth, the story spans decades. Hardship and friendship are followed by betrayal, deception, and murder.

©2018 Matthew Simmonds (P)2019 MX Publishing

Good set of stories

Sherlock Holmes solves 5 or 6 short stories before the title story. The stories are engaging and entertaining. The narration is also good. I received a free audiobook for my honest review.

Checks all the boxes for classic Holmes adventure

A quality pastiche. A set of short stories followed by a somewhat longer mystery. The framing of the short stories as an effort to provide a bored Holmes distraction over a single week was a clever device. I especially enjoyed the lost cat case Holmes didn’t even leave his bedroom to solve. The titular mystery proved to have a clever and satisfying solution. In classic Doyle fashion the audience is left guessing until the very end and once we learn all the facts it’s simplicity itself. Recommend.

Great

By chapter a different case, loved the narration clear and added to the story. One could easily be drawn in to each case, the settings. Especially that of Holmes. Loved it. Given audio for my voluntary review and my honest opinion

Not meant as a book length story

The trouble with turning Holmes-style plots and detection into a full-length story is that story line becomes forced after a while and Holmes becomes a parody of the Conan-Doyle original. In this tale, Holmes could not even come up with enough evidence to get the guy arrested. Instead we are asked to believe that Holmes was so persuasive that the guy just confessed. And Holmes comes across as smug and conceited and unbearable chapter after chapter. Such a disappointment.

An interesting collection of stories

This was a novella cunningly merged with some short stories, including one interstitial to the novella. Some were satisfying, some not so much. The author didn’t make me cringe at any point, but it just wasn’t as Holmesian as some other pastiches I have read.

The narrator did an okay job, but it was not always easy to discern which character was speaking. There were also a glaring number of mispronounced words, and many that were either misread by the narrator or miswritten by the author.

In either case, I can only give this book a lukewarm recommendation.