Back
Alexis Hall: The Affair of the Mysterious Letter (Paperback, 2019, Ace) 4 stars

In this charming, witty, and weird fantasy novel, Alexis Hall pays homage to Sherlock Holmes …

Review of 'The Affair of the Mysterious Letter' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is "Lady Sherlock Holmes" plus "Inter-dimensional Travel, but also Vampires" so you should know if that's your jam. Also, as Dr. Science says, "we're all queer here." It is extravagantly, joyfully queer.

Lady Sherlock (Shaharazad Haas) is one of the colder versions of Sherlock, but Haas' calculating ennui is offset by Watson (Wyndham)'s warmth and concern, and charming narrative voice. Wyndham is convinced that Haas is fundamentally a good person; I'm less so, but I'm willing to stick around to find out.

Most of the charm in this book, for me, was in its writing. It's a little overwrought, as is appropriate in a Holmes pastiche, and one recurring joke was Wyndham's refusal to commit any vulgar language to paper, even thought it becomes very apparent that everyone around him is saying "fuck" all the time. He is also a little bit incapable of telling when men are flirting with him, and very bad at talking to the police.

(Also, although I generally do not care about the author's intentions, I really want to know if Wyndham is getting laid on page 268???)