Art in The Blood by Bonnie MacBird was a continuation of the Sherlock Holmes Adventures. The story opens up with Dr. Watson after his marriage to Mary Morstan. He explains how he is "loath to write in detail about Holmes's artistic nature (14)" which seemed to me as a pretext as to the plot. Sherlock Holmes is recovering from his previous Ripper investigation when a mysteriously encoded letter arrives from Paris. With Dr. Watson at his side, Holmes hurries to Paris to assist a cabaret singer and her missing illegitimate child with an Earl. Along the way, Holmes discovers that there is more than just one child missing when connections to a silk mill with alleged murdered children and the missing Winged Nike statue are all tangled together. Can Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson discover the truth in time to prevent more murders and save the life of the cabaret and Earl's child?
This novel had me riveted from the beginning. The style is slightly different from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's. The chapters are shorter, which makes the pace seem very fast. MacBird did, however, leave the writing in Dr. Watson's capable perspective, which I appreciated as it made the novel feel like I was reading the memoirs still.
However, the character development was (for me) not quite the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson from Doyle. They seemed to have more energy, especially Watson. I have always felt that Doyle made Dr. Watson appear stuffy and less about the craving to work in the adventures. MacBird's Watson reminded me more of the BBC TV show, Sherlock in that Martin Freeman gives the feeling of enjoying the danger.
Overall I have to give the novel 3 out of 4 stars mainly because the short chapters took away the feeling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's style. I also felt that for a first in the series, there was almost too much action. However, I can't wait to read the second in the series by Bonnie MacBird entitled Unquiet Spirits: Whisky, Ghosts, Murder.
This novel had me riveted from the beginning. The style is slightly different from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's. The chapters are shorter, which makes the pace seem very fast. MacBird did, however, leave the writing in Dr. Watson's capable perspective, which I appreciated as it made the novel feel like I was reading the memoirs still.
However, the character development was (for me) not quite the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson from Doyle. They seemed to have more energy, especially Watson. I have always felt that Doyle made Dr. Watson appear stuffy and less about the craving to work in the adventures. MacBird's Watson reminded me more of the BBC TV show, Sherlock in that Martin Freeman gives the feeling of enjoying the danger.
Overall I have to give the novel 3 out of 4 stars mainly because the short chapters took away the feeling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's style. I also felt that for a first in the series, there was almost too much action. However, I can't wait to read the second in the series by Bonnie MacBird entitled Unquiet Spirits: Whisky, Ghosts, Murder.
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