Sherlock Holmes: Gods of War

By: James Lovegrove

Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

1913. The clouds of war are gathering. The world’s great empires vie for supremacy. Europe is in turmoil, a powder keg awaiting a spark. A body is discovered on the shore below Beachy Head, just a mile from Sherlock Holmes’s retirement cottage. The local police are satisfied that it’s a suicide. The victim, a young man, recently suffered a disappointment in love, and Beachy Head is notorious as a place where the desperate and depressed leap to their deaths. Holmes, however, suspects murder. As he and Watson investigate, they uncover a conspiracy with shocking ramifications.

©2014 James Lovegrove (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Great

Great book, left me intrigued and entertained with wry, quality humor up till the end.

As always incredible

I have gone through every Lovegrove book and this one does not fail the reader. Dennis Kleinman does a fantastic job at narration and keeps the listener engaged. All around a great read/listen.

Lovegrove's least intriguing Sherlock book so far

I have absolutely loved every Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson story that James Lovegrove had written up until this title. I'm not sure what was missing here that made this story fall short of what I've come to enjoy in every other Lovegrove story about the adventures of Holmes and Watson.

I think I was hoping for a closer connection to the first book released in this "set" of five books to be released on Audible. While there was a mention and reference to Fred Tilling from "The Stuff of Nightmares" I think I was hoping for a continuation of the vast deviation from typical elements in Sherlock Holmes pastiche.

Overall I have to admit that this was still an enjoyable story, great performance by the narrator as always, but I was hoping for a more exciting adventure than what was delivered in this tale. I found the characters introduced to be humdrum and boring. Some of the most interesting parts of this book happen within the first 1/3 of it, and after that I felt myself struggling to maintain an interest in listening through to the end.

With all this in mind, I do not regret picking this up and as always look forward to the next audiobook release of James Lovegrove's Sherlock Holmes books.

Capital I say!

Once again J.L. has put together a brilliant mystery.
Masterfully narrated and highly recommended.
The Game Is Afoot!

Solid performances in the classic style...

Probably one of the best stories in the classic style of Sherlock Holmes adventures that I've listened too in quite some time. It has solid vocal performances with a story that is perhaps fanciful, but with our heroes being typically righteous and stalwart, and the villains being callous and evil. Good yarn, and I'll be looking for more from the same author.

Great performance; he got the voices just right.

The reader did a great job on this one. As did the writer — he captured Doyle’s pace and style perfectly.

Quintessential holmes.

It's hard to write original sherlock holmes today but both the writing and marathon are superb

Excellent narrator?

The reader was very compelling. The story moved quickly and held my attention fully. Good reading, good writing!

Decent book

Another good book, however, the story seemed to lack some of the intrigue and excitement of the previous books, and the ending fell a little flat.

Good if you’re craving Sherlock Holmes on steroids

TL;DR: This book is based more on suspense and adventure than clues and mind games.

I don’t usually leave reviews for books, because I never know what’s worth mentioning. In this case though it’s easy enough. I love SH, I crave his stories, his adventures, his mind. So I’ll consume any second rate retelling there is out there. But this author is like reading SH on steroids; almost like it was written by Tom Clancy for Jack Ryan than JW & SH. The adventures are so ridiculous and far fetched they rely on luck not smarts to get out of them.

Watson is very whiny and all SH does is yammer on and on expecting things will eventually work out the way he hopes.
Also, I love suspense just as much as the next person who reads about his cases, but they get into such fantastical situations I can’t help but roll my eyes that they survive, in tact at “their age” which Watson has no problems complaining about every 5 sentences, they should not have made past the pneumonia and dog chase. Ugh so frustrating.