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Holmes Volume 1 Review by Rena Sherwood

Hi Holmies,

Check out this excellent review of Holmes Volume 1 by the lovely Rena Sherwood author of Not the New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

A Real Treat!

How good is this book? Let me put it this way -- the author Melvyn Small sent me a copy of his e-book for a review and soon after I started his book my laptop crashed (entirely coincidental, of course. It was an old laptop.) Now I lost the free copy but I wanted to know desperately what happened next.

So I went to Amazon and BOUGHT a copy.

Mr. Small has been patiently waiting for a review for about 10 months now since other crazy things have been happening in my life (including the Great Laptop Crash.) At first I tried to rush reading the copy in order to write the review, but when I hit Part II of the e-book I knew that a rush read was not doing the right thing.

This is a book to savor. I'd read a few e-pages a day (when I could) and it was a real treat. Your mileage may vary.

This is the most different incarnation of Sherlock Holmes that I've ever read. And the funniest. He's also more different and funnier than the Sherlock Holmes of my own e-book.

Yet he is recognizable as Sherlock Holmes. He has many of the core traits -- on top of latest technologies, not up on social graces, for example -- yet he is incarnated as a young ex-con of Teeside. He is a sexual being here, which I did not think was keeping with Sherlock Holmes, but that's a minor quibble. He is foul-mouthed, so adults only please.

You do need to be familiar with the Holmes canon, modern English slang (and pop culture) in order to get some of the in-jokes and puns. And some of these puns are brutal. The Wham! pun alone made me nearly beg for mercy.

But there are also some brilliant sparks of pop culture references that give that much more flavor to the e-book. There was even a reference to the movie "Tombstone" -- which is one of those movies that I swear only I was the only person on the planet that saw.

Most of the stories are very clever reworkings of classic canonical stories like "A Scandal in Bohemia." A reworking of "The Red-Headed League" does fall flat at the end but until the end it is a wild ride.

So -- in summary, I highly recommend this e-book for Sherlock Holmes fans, Teeside locals and anyone who wants a funny, clever read.

4 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com

Previous Postings

The Accidental Detective Gets Five Stars

Frankenstein 2.0

Door

Publishing Your KDP Print on Demand

Spitfire

Founding Indipenned

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 12)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 11)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 10)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 9)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 8)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 7)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 6)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 5)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 4)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 3)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 2)

The Darlington Substitution (Chapter 1)

Wind Back The News

What`s in a Name?