I now blog over at The Eyre Guide! This blog is an archive of my past posts.


Friday, February 22, 2013

Review: Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway and Other Stories

Posted by Charlene // Tags: , ,
Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway and Other Stories
by John Taylor

Plot Summary:

Four more thrilling Sherlock Holmes adventures from John Taylor, the creator of The Unopened Casebook of Sherlock Holmes , inspired by the original stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Includes An Inscrutable Masquerade ; The Conundrum of Coach 13 ; The Trinity Vicarage Larceny ; and The 10:59 Assassin.



Review:

Some new Sherlock Holmes stories read by Benedict Cumberbatch?  Yes, please.  Honestly that is the only reason I picked up this audiobook, but I'm glad that I did because not only did I really enjoy Benedict's reading (wonderfully varied and distinct and his Sherlock is appropriately different from his modern TV version), I really enjoyed these stories.

"An Inscrutable Masquerade" was my favorite actually, Watson is kept largely in the dark, as Holmes works on the case, and I found Watson's repressed exasperation yet general good will to honor Holmes' difficult requests so endearing and a perfect representation of his character.  The mystery itself was not too difficult to unravel, but the crafting of the story was very entertaining.

"The Conundrum of Coach 13" was a bit drawn out, probably because I think it is easy to guess how the crime was engineered.  The 'who' was not as easy to figure out, and it was a fun twist. And nice to hear Benedict do an American accent!

"The Trinity Vicarage Larceny" was the weakest story in my opinion.  More of a character driven mystery in a small town village.  It was only okay for me.

"The 10:59 Assassin" was a good end to this set of stories because the nature of the mystery was so convoluted and full of red herrings.  Definitely this was a more mind twisty mystery, with a very memorable set-up.

Of course these stories don't match the original in cleverness, but it does a believable job of capturing the characters and creating some very interesting mysteries.  It's an enjoyable listen and worth it if you are a fan of Holmes or Benedict.

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6 comments:

  1. Of course I am a HUGE fan of Holmes and Watson. I love there clever stories, so I think that I might like this one a lot.
    GREAT review!
    Your reader,
    Soma
    http://insomnia-of-books.blogspot.com/

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    1. I think this is an enjoyable listen for the fans, so I hope you do get to check it out! Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. You had me at Benedict Cumberbatch!

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    1. LOL, he makes picking which audiobook to listen to so easy!

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  3. I hadn't heard of this release before - it sounds pretty neat. I'll have to seek out a copy! :)

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