Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Pigtail Twist

By: M J H Simmonds

Narrated by: Joff Manning

Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Clever Story, Enjoyable Listen

This Holmes & Watson escapade is one of the better non-Conan Doyle stories, with a unique approach. The book starts with Sherlock solving a series of small cases before getting in to the main story. The main story is very interesting, with plot twists and a solution that were not as obvious as some other Sherlock Holmes books. I also liked the digression of a whole other case that Holmes describes to Watson while passing time.

Two things I didn't like...without giving it away, the case goes from several suspects to just one very abruptly. And, the narrator's voice for Holmes is horrible. I don't know why so many narrators struggle to voice Holmes after their regular voice serves Watson well.

Overall, the compelling story makes this a good choice for Sherlock fans, while the voice of Watson is well done to compensate for the grating voice of Holmes.

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.

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.

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

Could have been written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!

The well-developed story held my attention throughout!

Joff Manning did a great job narrating!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Interesting Sherlockian Adventure

This book has a few very short appetizers that were just okay, but I found the main story to be very interesting. Though no one has matched Doyle, I thought this story was a very good imitation. They narrator did an outstanding job doing the voices you expect in a Sherlock Holmes audio.

Good

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The beginning of this can be hard to follow. Many times I had to remind myself that Dr Watson is narrating. Joff did a good job reading this book but many times I could not tell what character was talking as there was not a distinguishing voice change. They story was still great and I do recommend this book.

If only I knew what pigtail twist meant

This story, featuring the famous Sherlock Holmes, has actually an intro of five or six short mysteries. Most of them I could not guess the solution before it was revealed, usually because we are not provided with the full clues that Sherlock sees, but they are still very cool stories.
The main mystery takes a lot more trouble to solve than the short ones (all of them in a day, one without even leaving the bedroom) so it's much more challenging. The mystery of the murder weapon persist even after the perpetrator is apprehended. The logics of trying to find evidences and the narrator fantastic job, in true british accent, come together for a fantastic tale for anyone that likes Sherlock Holmes world.

Engaging plot but odd presentation

The book is split, with the first part being a few short and seemingly unrelated snippets of cases, then the majority of the book following one case. The short cases were nothing spectacular but didn’t take much time to listen to and a larger collection of such small cases could make for a good book for those who have limited time and want something smaller as the cases could be read individually. The larger case of the pigtail twist had a much more intriguing plot and to me was more enjoyable.

The writing style was very formal, almost feeling at times as if it were presenting evidence as a news report rather than a novel despite being written in the first person perspective of Watson. Additionally, the characters seemed flat. Watson frequently remarks on how Sherlock is breaking his normal habits which makes me wonder how normal they truly are, and many of the characters revere Sherlock to an almost alarming degree even though he frequently uses them or doesn’t tell them anything about his thoughts. Overall the way characterization seems to be done is through Watson describing what has happened in the past or assuming things about Sherlock’s behavior rather than through any actual interactions between the character.

The narrators voice is soothing and relatively unaffected by events in this story, which I think actually fits the more news-like style of the book. However, at times the audio cuts off abruptly or gets too muddled to make out some words and there are occasionally very long pauses. It seems like there may have been some issues in editing the audio.

Overall I think the story has a lot of potential but I would have enjoyed more genuine interaction between the characters to bring a little more life to them.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

good story

good story but, if I was reading, it would have been hard to stay interested.