The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes

A Novel

By: Leonard Goldberg

Narrated by: Steve West

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's Summary

From USA Today best-selling author Leonard Goldberg comes The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes, a new thrilling tale of the great detective's daughter and her companion, Dr. John Watson Jr., as they investigate a murder at the highest levels of British society.

England, 1914. Joanna Blalock's keen mind and incredible insight lead her to become a highly skilled nurse, one of the few professions that allow her to use her finely tuned brain. But when she and her 10-year-old son witness a man fall to his death, apparently by suicide, they are visited by the elderly Dr. John Watson and his charming, handsome son, Dr. John Watson Jr. Impressed by her forensic skills, they invite her to become the third member of their investigative team.

Caught up in a Holmesian mystery that spans from hidden treasure to the Second Afghan War of 1878-1880, Joanna and her companions must devise an ingenious plan to catch a murderer in the act while dodging familiar culprits, Scotland Yard, and members of the British aristocracy. Unbeknownst to her, Joanna harbors a mystery of her own. The product of a one-time assignation between the now dead Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, the only woman to ever outwit the famous detective, Joanna has unwittingly inherited her parents' deductive genius.

©2017 Leonard Goldberg (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

the dates in this book don't add up

Holmes and Adler met in 1888, therefore Joanna couldn't be older than 22 in 1910 but has a 10 year old son. That makes no sense. On the same note John Watson Jr. is supposed to be 32. Which means he was born in 1878, two years before Watson met Holmes.
The fact that the author didn't bother doing some simple math before deciding what year to set the book in fills me with rage.

Not Worth It

What would have made The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes better?

The author should have let the reader figure out that Joanna was smart.

How could the performance have been better?

Better dialogue to read.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes?

The scenes were fine, the plot interesting enough, the dialogue and characters were distracting and lame,

Any additional comments?

This contribution will definitely not be added to the list of great additions to the Sherlock Holmes treasury. Waste of time and a credit.

Tedious at best, insulting to your intelligence at worst

Although one expects a certain amount of incredulity at her intelligence by her male colleagues to be part of the plot in a Gender-swapped Sherlockian Mystery, and the heroine overcoming it to be an early victory, this state of affairs drags on forever where her companions are shocked by how much she knows and observes but repeat ad nauseam her skills as a "highly trained surgical nurse." This is perhaps not unfair as 3 chapters in all she's managed to deduce is that the primary witness to the crime is nearsighted and that objects fall at 32 feet per second, a fact they spend an eternity discussing how she knew that and (spoiler alert) she read it in a physics book once and remembered it. (Shocking! Brava Lady Holmes!)

Between the stilted condescending and patronizing dialogue (not just towards our intelligent female heroine oddity, but also somehow towards you, our dear reader) and the fact that the obvious conclusion to the first mystery presented could be solved in 15 minutes and they're going to make me read about it for the next two hours.. I simply cannot continue. I'll take literally any other of the Female Holmes novels over this one. At least in A Study of Scarlet Women they have delicious descriptions of pastries.

not good

holy cow this was so bad I had to force myself to finish it. the dialogue was forced, the mystery completely lacking in actual mystery, and the narrator sounded like a British version of the Moviephone dude. the "romance" felt like it had been written by a 12 year old, and like, not even a cool 12 year old. let's never do this again.

Not at all Extraordinary

I don't typically write reviews and am generally not as harsh about audio books as some of the reviews I read. I can handle a small amount of predictability and repetitiveness as long as I'm generally entertained, but this book was not good. The elder Watson had to have said, "That's extraordinary" at least 50 times through the story. It was probably more. It was tedious, not just in story but in dialogue. The author tried to fit too much plot into character dialogue. Absolutely no one talks like that and it does not make them sound more intelligent or interesting. It's like someone read a Sherlock Holmes story and then an Introduction to Writing book and then wrote this book. I love Sherlock Holmes mysteries and women detective stories, but this one was substandard. Don't waste your credits. If you want a female Sherlock Holmes story listen to Sherry Thomas' A Study in Scarlet Women, or, for a decent female detective story listen to Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell Mysteries. They at least won't leave you rolling your eyes at the narration.

wonderful

Sherlock was there in this believable mystery.. Exciting to feel the intellect of Holmes come alive in a woman. Worth it. And I hope there will be a sequel to fill out the character of iSherlock's dayghter

Sherlock stories continue!

As a devoted Holmes fan, I found this story superb. The audio presentation was also excellent...one of those where I stay in the car long after the trip is done, just to hear more. Enjoyable from start to finish!

Adequate

Not very creative. The character's connection to Sherlock Holmes, as well as the Luke warm romance felt forced. Predictable storytelling.

great book

Loved this book very interesting to listen too. They got the story right and the ending was a surprise

Hard To Finish

I love Sherlock Holmes and I wanted to continue into new territory. I was excited that there was a female "Sherlock" and the reviews were pretty good. However, it's so hard to finish. Watson is stupider than ever, which is so painful to listen to. Everyone was also so astonished that a woman... gasp... a woman could think. I mean, I get it. Maybe a couple times for that time period from the same people but, seriously, it was over kill.