Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows
Series: The Cthulhu Casebooks, Book 1
By: James Lovegrove / Narrated By: Dennis Kleinman
Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
Dude! if this wasn’t entertaining enough?! Well then the bad reviews surely are! HA!
Okay, this is the part where I divulge that occaaaaasionally I dash over to read -other- reviewers takes on a book I just finished, prior to writing my review. I do this cuz, I’m all, like, shaping the review in m’ head, and I do NOT want to look later and discover that I neglected something egregiously HUGE. I haaaate discovering stuff like that. Usually it’s only a quick look-see, but this time? Oh my, how I did indeed spend some time perusing the bad reviews!
Turns out? When people read/Listen to a book called Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows? And it’s part of the “The Cthulhu Casebooks” series? Oh jeez, how they do kvetch and wail that Hey! whazzis?! This is NOT Sherlock Holmes of canon!
Shocker! I KNOW! right?! One would think that “Cthulhu” might kiiinda sooorta be a wee bit of a hint that there might be something oh, I dunno, supernatural?! going on in this series?
Just saying. If you’re going to listen to this story, and I highly recommend that you do, oh dooo get a grip and Suspend Disbelief, like, big time!
The story opens with author James Lovegrove receiving word that he’s waaaaay distant kin to THE HP Lovecraft. And a descendant of Lovecraft has died, leaving lawyers looking for kin to disburse funds to. Cha-CHING! thinks Lovegrove, and he begins planning uses for the sudden monetary windfall. Uhm, not so faaast. They found someone; but as he’s a writer, p’raps he might have use for this other thing, this ooooold, aaaaancient journal that might or might not belong to THE Dr. JH Watson.
Lovegrove is bummed, but he gamely takes the manuscript. And so we have this new adventure that Holmes and Watson encountered.
This TOTALLY sets up how Watson and Holmes meet in a different fashion (Watson drunk and spoiling for a fight with Holmes in disguise and tailing someone), TOTALLY describes the wound Watson received in Afghanistan in a different fashion (And I shall let you hear it yourself and not spoil anything, shall I?), TOTALLY reframes Every. Single. Adventure/Case they ever had.
Sacrilege!
But oh what fun!!!
Holmes and Watson are looking into murders most foul, bodies turning up of impoverished people who’ve apparently starved to death. -But- witnesses swear they saw the victims looking just fine and dandy just days before. Holmes is certain it’s all to do with one Opium Kingpin, and it turns out that he might be right. A forced encounter between H&W and the opium lord leads to an invitation for Holmes, one that he must undertake alone.
And so Holmes encounters the Great Old Ones, gods who’ve been around since before there were any gods, and his mind. is. BLOWN. More tragedies ensue, and strange shadows are seen throughout Shadwell, where these mysterious murders have been occurring. Things get dire, and then they get more dire, and strangeness abounds.
It’s sooo much fun cuz it ain’t got a shred o’ reality to it. Those keen observational skills? Wellll, not on display here so much as outrageous hunches. Plus a good deal of martial arts. Plus Lizard Men. Plus shifty, soul-sucking shadows. Plus opium-induced hazes. Plus the good ol’ policemen/detectives that you’ve come to know and to love in all the Sherlock Holmes stories.
I’ve been reeeally lucky this week as every single narrator has knocked it outta the park. Dennis Kleinman is no exception. His Holmes sounds a bit less urbane, but Kleinman makes up for it with sheer wackiness and great leaps o’ logic and Aha! moments. Watson is adorable, and jeez does he have his own secret traumas (That wound, I tell ya!), or what?! And Kleinman handles each rip-roaring outlandish scene with a vigorous joy, so that one is tickled pink as one sits back, suspending the beJESus outta one’s belief. As for the denouement, Kleinman adds sooo much humor to an already witty book, the banter between possible victims is >gulp< to DIE for (Yeh I went there). Bravo, Mr. Kleinman, bravo! Nicely done, sir.
I got this first book in the series on sale at Chirpbooks, and lo! I got Book 3 during a Series Sale over on Audible. That said, however? I’m vaaaastly disappointed that Book 2 was NOT included in the sale… Boooo! HISSSSS!!! Still, good enough, such tight writing (If a tale that goes here there EVERYwhere can be considered “tight”), such witty repartee, such great vocal characterizations, such swift pacing, that as soon as I can, as soon as I can get away with another All Things Sherlock Holmes week?
Gonna chuck a credit at that next book, like, no questions asked. THAT fun…
Yessss!!!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.