Rated 3 stars
Audiobook
This was simply an OK book. Fortunately I didn't have enough invested in it to tick me off so I can simply shrug it off.
The problem for me with this one is that it was supposed to be about a young Sherlock Holmes and the author obviously had no feel what so ever as to the character of Sherlock Holmes. This book could have been about any kid. Any kid that is except Sherlock Holmes.
But to readers who are not long time Sherlock Holmes readers it probably worked for them. But for long time Holmes fans and like I am that that are convinced that even as an infant he had a distinctive personality and his first words were probably uttered in a sarcastic tone the book fell utterly flat. It's my opinion that the author should have used someone whose personality was not so distinctive if they felt the need to use an established character to draw in readers.
Book Description
It is the summer of 1868, and Sherlock Holmes is fourteen. On break from boarding school, he is staying with eccentric strangers—his uncle and aunt—in their vast house in Hampshire. When two local people die from symptoms that resemble the plague, Holmes begins to investigate what really killed them, helped by his new tutor, an American named Amyus Crowe. So begins Sherlock’s true education in detection, as he discovers the dastardly crimes of a brilliantly sinister villain of exquisitely malign intent.
