paperback, 448 pages
Published May 11, 2021 by Tor Books.
This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.
In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings under a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent.
Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows.
I enjoyed the characters, the worldbuilding, and found it a fresh and interesting take on Holmesian fiction, and I really liked Crow in particular. At times it felt a little disjointed, and though I really liked some parts, there were other parts that didn't appeal quite so much. Overall an enjoyable read.
Don't get me wrong, I love Katherine Addison in general. I love a good novel that comes from the realm of fanfic (hello, Winter's Orbit!). I love mysteries and a Sherlock pastiche. I love gender stuff! With all of that, I enjoyed the writing itself, but the book tried to do too much structurally and it didn't come together for me.
The Angel of the Crows is a Sherlock story, but the setup here is that Crow (Sherlock) is an angel and Doyle (Watson) took an injury in Afghanistan from a fallen angel that left them partially a hell hound (in a werewolf sort of way). Crow here is awkward but also kind, and so the relationship between Crow and Doyle where they each help and care for each other in their own way works for me. (I personally am alienated by "jerk Sherlock" and don't quite understand why …
Don't get me wrong, I love Katherine Addison in general. I love a good novel that comes from the realm of fanfic (hello, Winter's Orbit!). I love mysteries and a Sherlock pastiche. I love gender stuff! With all of that, I enjoyed the writing itself, but the book tried to do too much structurally and it didn't come together for me.
The Angel of the Crows is a Sherlock story, but the setup here is that Crow (Sherlock) is an angel and Doyle (Watson) took an injury in Afghanistan from a fallen angel that left them partially a hell hound (in a werewolf sort of way). Crow here is awkward but also kind, and so the relationship between Crow and Doyle where they each help and care for each other in their own way works for me. (I personally am alienated by "jerk Sherlock" and don't quite understand why anybody would ever like him.)
This book is also a direct retelling of a Study in Scarlet, the Sign of Four, part of the Adventure of the Yellow Face, and Hound of the Baskervilles. My Sherlock knowledge is not the best, and so it's possible there's other references I missed too.
For me, these Sherlock stories hewed too close to the source material. It's not that there aren't minor shifts around in the story to accommodate for the more supernatural elements in the world or of Crow and Doyle, but it's not quite enough to make a compelling story for me. When I already know what the Barrymores are up to in the Baskerville estate or about the treasure in the Sign of Four, I need something more: either something much more unexpected to happen, or for it to stretch the worldbuilding, or for it to highlight character dynamics in some fresh way. It just wasn't enough change in most of these cases to feel like all this merited a novel-length retelling with so many of the same details.
(I will say that the most fun twist was the nicely foreshadowed subversion of Mary Morstan at the end of the Sign of Four.)
The worldbuilding is a bit wild: airships, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, clairvoyance, angels, but also at the same time (somehow?)! a largely unchanged Victorian England. I have so many questions about "alternate history with magic" style changes where the magic and supernatural elements haven't deeply transformed society. There's also no indication of when or where all these things started existing or being possible; just that they're there and are largely accepted parts of society.
I was hoping that the reveal of worldbuilding was leading up to something like a supernatural mystery, or a case that more closely involved Crow and the angel consensus, or something with the vampire Moriarty plot, or even something to reveal deeper information about what angels actually are. In the end, we get a moment of connection between Crow and Doyle, but unsatisfyingly are left with nothing to tie together any of the disparate Sherlock stories, the supernatural worldbuilding, or the many loose plot threads.
Even before reading the afterword, this struck me as a whimsically conceived book. Nonetheless Addison does her usual excellent job of world building and characterization, and the book develops a compelling texture.
An eccentric genius and an army doctor recently returned from the Afghanistan war solve crimes from their Baker Street apartment in Victorian London: supernatural edition.
Well-written, with lots of nods to the original source, yet plenty of original twists.
3.5 stars.
This is Sherlock Holmes fanfic, and with fanfic as the baseline for judgment, it's delightful. Crow, the Holmes character, makes so much more sense as a non-human who is puzzled by the basics of human life. Whereas Holmes (at least in my memory of the original) might be offputtingly brusque, Crow has an alien-like curiosity and interest in people. It's a nice change from the anti-hero House-type main characters that are currently popular.
[Spoilers below]
Putting fan-fic aside, I don't think there's enough framing of why Crow is an angel. There's a hint of an overarching narrative that could be neatly tied up, but it never really happens. A lot of questions go unanswered.
All was fine. But the last three chapters... Too much talking, not showing. The ending feels rushed.
Addison/Monette is an excellent writer of friendships, and in particular of scenes where awkward and traumatized people find that they have built up enough trust that they can risk having honest conversations about what they mean to one another and how to be good to one another. That's one of the things I'm hoping to find when I pick up her books, and The Angel of the Crows does deliver it. On the other hand, it's a novel about the Jack the Ripper murders in which (to my recollection) no sex worker gets any dialogue, and the sympathetic characters who talk about the victims and their community all do so with a tutting, dismissive pity that gets startlingly ugly in places.
I liked this enough to finish it, but it left a sour taste in my mouth.
Such a delicious take on Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson! It is classic Victorian Holmes, but with a fantastical element. Her world building has a variety of supernatural beings, and Holmes is perfect.
