Book Review - The Sherlockian, by Graham Moore

I chose to read this book because I love Sherlock Holmes and this was a story about a fellow fan who gets caught up in playing detective in a murder mystery.  The twist is that there are actually two storylines, the primary, set in 2010, and a secondary storyline revolving around Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, set in 1900.  The premise is pretty cool, but the execution was sloppy.  The author chose to float back and forth between the two timelines with alternating chapters and it was very difficult to get into the flow of either one.

I also did not appreciate some of the language - it was quite disrespectful to women (and I know he meant it for shock value to accentuate one of his plotlines), but it was jarring and distracting and distasteful.  But my biggest problem with the book was how the author chose to end the Doyle storyline... and I won't reveal any details but this probably deserves a *spoiler alert* anyway.  So, here goes...  I feel that with historical fiction any author has a delicate line to walk when they choose to write about a real person.  The path Mr. Moore took with Mr. Doyle was difficult to read and I think if I was one of his descendants I might be pretty upset with the light in which his character was painted.

I can't say I would recommend this book to anyone.

Book Review - "Death Comes to Pemberly" by P.D. James

I love Jane Austen, her books are so fantastic.  She was such a student of human nature. I love to read her books, her descriptions of her characters...so many times I find myself thinking "I *know* that guy!"  And I get so attached to the people she portrays.  Of course it doesn't hurt that I've seen the Pride & Prejudice miniseries about a hundred times ;)

Recently I have also enjoyed reading some of the "sequels" to her books that modern authors have written, such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (a very fun little book)  I also enjoyed Old Friends and New Fancies, where the author tied up all the loose ends characters (the ones left single in Austen's books).

The latest to come along is Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James.  I admit I thought it would be more of a murder mystery than it was.  It was actually more of a legal drama, and a good one.  I really enjoyed the walk through the legal process of the time period.  And there was a bit of mystery there, you don't know till the end who actually did the deed and why.  I appreciated that she gave us all the clues though (as opposed to some mystery writers who save many clues until the big reveal).  I also enjoyed that often she used actual quotes from Pride and Prejudice - she did a great job of keeping the character of the characters.  The book had a bit of a slow start, but once the action got going, I couldn't put it down. 

If you're an Austen fan, this one's a must-read!