Monday, August 1, 2011

Review: Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes #1) by Andy Lane

Book: Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes #1)
Author: Andy Lane
Release date: 02/01/11



Blurb:
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.

Review:
So i originally got this book for my sister for her birthday last march. Every time i walked into her room i would see it un-read sitting on her book shelf. Well i decided to pick it up and start reading it. Interesting enough the first thing i found out is that this is book was authorized and endorsed by the estate if Arthur Conan Doyle. Seeing that i knew it had to be good. I'm glad to say i wasn't disappointed.

The book starts out with thirteen year old Sherlock Holmes getting read to leave Deepdene School for Boys. He's waiting for his father to pick him up, but unexpectedly Mycroft Holmes is the one to collect him. Mycroft did not come bringing good news. Sherlock's father has been called to duty in the East Indies and his mother is too sickly for him to come home. Neither does Mycroft have the time to watch in in London. Therefore he is going to stay with a uncle he's never met in a town called Farnham. Needless to say Sherlock is not the least bit pleased. Course Sherlock being who he is and destiny decided to come a knocking early. No sooner had he gotten settled in that a second man is found dead of a mysterious illness. Sherlock, along with his friend Matty, American tutor Amyus Crowe, Amyus's daughter Virginia, set out to discover why.

My impression of this book is that it definitely was worth it's endorsement by the Doyle estate. Written in a tone similar to Conan Doyle's you really feel like your reading about the earlier adventures of Sherlock. Not quite the detective mastermind yet you can see how Sherlock would turn into the man he would become. Interesting enough i'm quite curious as to see what happens to Matty and the Crowe's later on. To my knowledge they don't appear in any of the original stories.

Needless to say i'll be reading the sequel that is to come out. Whether i'll be getting it for my sister of myself is the question.

Final Rating: 4 1/2 Bunnies. There were some minor flaws in the book that kept it from being a 5. Plus a 5 star book for me is one where i jadored it. I liked this book, but didn't love love love it.


0 comments: