lgiegerich's review against another edition
4.0
These books are really quite good. The fact that Sherlock Holmes barely shows up is a non-issue, as the Watson characterization is so well-done. Excellent depiction of shellshock, & more info on the early tank prototypes than I ever knew before.
annagrac's review
2.0
I enjoyed the first Dr Watson book in this series which had a strong clear plot and vivid historic detail. This book however was a weaker story with a poor plot, far to many coincidences and implausible occurrences. The plot armour of the main characters was especially irritating.
lucyp21's review against another edition
4.0
Historical murder mystery with spies, politics and Dr Watson? Definitely a book I was interested in and the characterisation of Dr Watson himself was done really well, painting a man as loyal to his country but not blindly and not at the expense of his oldest friend. The plot itself kept moving with twists and turns I never expected, spies being revealed to themselves at the same time as us and the murderer not becoming clear until the end.
The secret of Sherlock Holmes added another layer to the story and a good explanation about why Dr Watson was solving this mystery alone and I am glad it worked out in the end. Holmes being dead would be one thing but Holmes losing the one thing he valued most? That would be too tragic, even with all the deaths in this book.
As the book started to come to an end, that was when it started to lose its way a little. I found too many subplots and too many points of view to make sense of it all. Still, I would recommend it to any fans of Sherlock Holmes.
The secret of Sherlock Holmes added another layer to the story and a good explanation about why Dr Watson was solving this mystery alone and I am glad it worked out in the end. Holmes being dead would be one thing but Holmes losing the one thing he valued most? That would be too tragic, even with all the deaths in this book.
As the book started to come to an end, that was when it started to lose its way a little. I found too many subplots and too many points of view to make sense of it all. Still, I would recommend it to any fans of Sherlock Holmes.
kater's review against another edition
4.0
Another excellent book by Ryan. I'm not usually a huge fan of spin offs but Ryan's imaging of Dr Watson in WW1 is fantastic. And in this book we get more of Sherlock Holmes. This time Dr Watson is back in the UK, and is sent in by Churchill to investigate what has happened after 8 men went insane,7 of those dying, during a training exercise of the brand new landships, or tanks.
There are spies, skulduggery and lots of information about shell shock and the invention and early models of the tanks all presented in a good story. And reading about all this during the week of the Anzac 100 year anniversary made some chapters particularly moving.
There are spies, skulduggery and lots of information about shell shock and the invention and early models of the tanks all presented in a good story. And reading about all this during the week of the Anzac 100 year anniversary made some chapters particularly moving.
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