The Angel of the Crows

hardcover, 448 pages

Published June 23, 2020 by Tor Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-8739-4
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4 stars (19 reviews)

5 editions

The Angel of the Crows

2 stars

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 …

Review of 'The Angel of the Crows' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

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.

Review of 'The Angel of the Crows' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

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.

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