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Title: The Final Tales of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1: The Musical Murders

Author: John A. Little

Narrator: Steve White

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-29-16

Publisher: MX Publishing

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Classic Detective

Publisher's Summary:

Holmes and Watson are plunged into the secret underworld of 1925 London, where a serial killer of musical (gay) men is afoot. The killer has a little list, and Sherlock is on it. Why? And what have the Bloomsbury Group and the Diogenes Club got to do with anything?

Thanks to Royal Jelly, Holmes is a fit 71-year-old who has lost his interest in bees and returned to detecting. He's not quite as sharp as he used to be, but he's still pretty sharp, and a bit of a vigilante in his old age. He meets up with his colleague and friend, Dr. John Hamish Watson, a 72-year-old not-quite-so-fit-at-all twice-widower, who hankers after the good old days of derring-do. They are joined by their excitable new housekeeper at 221B Baker Street, the brilliant, buxom Miss Lily Hudson, and are helped in their work by Jasper Lestrade of Scotland Yard, the ambitious, respectful son of the late George Lestrade.

Members Reviews:

Decent Attempt Ruined By Incredulous Antagonist

*** THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS ***

When Mycroft Holmes dies suddenly, a now twice-widowed Dr Watson comes to be accidentally reunited with his old friend at the funeral, where Holmes confides in him that his brother's death was in fact a murder he intends to investigate. As Sherlock Holmes has sold his cottage in the Sussex Downs and moved back into Baker Street, he of course asks Watson to do the same. The first few opening chapters were a nicely done getting together of the detective and doctor in their golden years - the meat and potatoes, as it were, of a solid story, were in place. There was an attempt made at recreating those intellectual puzzles of the originals, the idea behind the ciphers was exceptionally clever, and the first few chapters came off as very polished for a first novel. It appeared then, as though we were in for a nice "retirement era" story that attempts to recreate, with a few obvious exceptions, the spirit of the duo's old days solving crimes in Victorian England.

Except, that is the last thing it actually does.

The case revolves around a series of murders where all the victims are "musical" and being killed in a very gruesome way. It made for a promising start, but the plot collapses quickly. The historical accuracy was nil - too much of the antagonist's motivation seemed rooted in 21st century sensibilities. It is one thing to take a topic that Watson would have had, for proprieties sake, to leave unpublished, yet another to insert modern situations and reactions to them into a Victorian setting. This contributed to straining an already thin plot. Aside from that, the killer's identity and reasoning behind his murder spree were veneer. There was, essentially, no mystery to solve.

The characterizations were not exactly up to par, either. Lily Hudson - who is no substitute for her aunt, the estimable Mrs Hudson - was grating from the very page on which she was introduced, with her overdone cockney accent. Mycroft Holmes was apparently a Bohemian socialite. Holmes, I have to admit, was mostly himself, which is why I stuck with it all the way through. Watson starts off fairly well, however, does not get away so unscathed. Somewhere mid-way through, he becomes an absolute farcical bumbler, who contributed nothing whatsoever to the story and apparently had no other purpose than sleeping and eating.