The West End Horror

A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D.

By: Nicholas Meyer

Narrated by: David Case

Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Selling two million copies in earlier editions, this is the second of the rediscovered Sherlock Holmes adventures.

London, March 1895. The West End is full of strange happenings. Theater critic Jonathan McCarthy has been murdered. A young actress has also been killed - her throat slit. The Marquess of Queensberry is being sued for libel. And a police surgeon has disappeared along with two corpses.

Prominent figures in the theater district seem to be somehow involved in these various mysteries, including Bernard Shaw, Ellen Terry, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde.

Scotland Yard is mystified by what appear to be unrelated cases. Sherlock Holmes, however, finds it all elementary: a maniac is at work. And his name is Jack.

©1984 Nicholas Meyer (P)2009 Random House

Narrator ruins this book

I just can’t get past the voice of the narrator. He’s annoying. I loved the narrator for “The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocol” - Nic’s most recent Sherlock adventure. I wish he would redo this book.

Narrator is just horrible

The story is good, but it was a punishment to listen to the horrible narrative. The reader uses voices and give Holmes a voice similar to that of a boy whose voice is changing.
Fire the reader and re-record please!!!!!

Better Than the 1st, Not as Good as the 3rd

I went through these out of order, so I can now say that to my mind the three books in this series get progressively better. This one, being the middle book, is average... just average... really average. But not without merit as the characters are personified to the hilt. Holmes meets up with the likes of George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Bram Stoker as the quest to catch a critic's killer unfolds. The mystery presented here is considerably better than the other two books in all honesty, but that mystery at times seems to take second stage to the characters themselves. If it were written as a parody rather than as pastiche, I'd say it actually feels more like one of those old Scooby Doo cartoons where the gang meets up with the likes of Don Knotts or Cass Elliott, but thankfully this is written with the tone of a Sherlock Holmes story. If nothing else, the grand finale is suitable to nudge the overall quality to just above average.

I have nothing but respect overall for Nicholas Meyer as a writer, but this one being written within short order of The Seven Per-Cent Solution (which I loathe as a story), I was a bit worried. Now I can see the progression of how these were written, and if nothing else, I can see where he improved and where he still needs work. Ultimately I think in the case of all three of these, the biggest problem is the incorporation of the famous people and characters as it does come across more as fan fiction than a serious attempt at Holmes stories from a professional. But that's just my personal bias as a self-proclaimed Sherlockian. Disagreement will always abound about such things, and if nothing else it's always interesting to compare similar offerings by other writers.

Could not finish

The performance was distracting, over the top, not genuine. Certainly not to be compare to originals.

Close enough

This may not have been written by Conan Doyle but it is close enough in my opinion.

Most "Holmesian" pastiche so far

"The West End Horror" follows "The 7 Percent Solution" in the Nicholas Mayer-edited series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. This second book is far superior to the first. It is one cohesive story that recalls the novels such as "The Hound of the Baskervilles."

I particularly like a technique employed in the previous book and this book: footnotes which tie in aspects of either other stories in the Canon or interesting references to Victorian-era people or events that may not readily be recognized by the modern reader.

Overall the story is intriguing and runs along at a fast pace. It took me much of the first book to get used to the narrator. He returns to read this book and is a natural Holmes. My only two complaints, if they can be called complaints, is that Watson is still too gruff for my taste. Secondly, the story was so compact and concise that I was actually disappointed that it ended as quickly as it did.