Possible spoiler straight ahead!

As we do with most narrators, we trust and accept Watson as he presents himself in the canonical stories, and why wouldn't we? We're never presented with a reason not to. Until now. I think that's why I enjoyed this addition to the 'Further Adventures' series, it was a great take on the original tales (including plenty of references) with a skewed presentation of familiar characters.

This book is so unbelievably bad - in a very entertaining way, though. I was very entertained because it was bad, but it’s not a good book any way other than that.
The ending is so funny to me.... they don’t even get him... and the Plot Twist is so stupid and unoriginal it was Amazing
I should have known it would be a bad book when I saw it was dedicated to Mark Gatiss..

By popcornbooksblog.com


At first I was sceptical, not quite sure what to expect from a Sherlock not written by Conan A. Doyle.
When I started reading my perplexity disappeared as I was getting more and more involved with the discovery of the international plot revealed page after page.
Once again I was walking the streets of a Victorian London with Watson as my guide, once again trying to guess the complex and unfathomable way of thinking of Sherlock Holmes.
Dealing with street urchins, powerful villains, complex government figures and historical mysteries, trying to discovery the truth about a missing officer and to give peace to a grieving mother.


Dr Watson’s character felt, to me, better highlighted than in most of the other adventures and, somehow, I felt this made Sherlock’s character more easily readable, less distant and less bizarre somehow.
The adventure per se it is revealed slowly and with a lot of research mixed with bits of action, even fights. The tone of the novel becomes more and more complicated, taking an investigation over a military matter to another level, the discovery of a political conspiracy (involving even people on the front pages of the political scenario of that time).

“So you divined a secret battle and an international conspiracy, simply because you were looking for a missing sailor.”

Just as a warning: This is full of spoilers.



This is a deer in the headlights book. A watching an accident and just can't take your eyes off of it book. I hated it but just could not stop reading it. It sucked me in and kept me there, watching all sorts of absolutely WRONG things happening to some very beloved characters. So---I'm supposed to believe that just about everybody of importance in the Sherlock Holmes stories was in Moriarty's pay or connected to his diabolical organization in some way??? That Watson and Mrs. Hudson and MYCROFT are all on the Professor's payroll? That Moriarty OWNS 221 B Baker Street? Right. Yeah, I'm swallowing that one (or three or however many impossible things I'm supposed to believe--before or after breakfast). And, yet, I could not put the thing down. I finished it off in one afternoon. I suppose so I could have the dreadful thing done and off my hands. If you want a book you can't put down, then this may be the book for you. If you're looking for a good Holmes and Watson story that works well with what you know of the canon, not so much.


This review was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Ripper Legacy (2016) by David Stuart Davies takes place not long after Sherlock Holmes has returned from his "demise" at the Reichenbach Falls. It involves Holmes and Watson in a kidnapping case that has baffled the authorities. Young William Temple wandered away from his mother and his nanny while at Kensington Gardens. The women lose sight of him near the Round Pond and the next they see him, he is in the distance--being dragged from the park by two men. Charlotte Temple did not get a good look at the men and there has been no ransom demand, so the police have had no luck tracing the boy. Holmes himself hold out little hope to the distraught parents, but promises to do his best.

Gradually, he discovers slender clues that lead him from the Temple's upper class home to a disreputable orphanage to the dark alleyways of White Chapel. Those clues also lead him to suspect a connection with the unsolved murders of Jack the Ripper and his investigations into the child's true heritage reveals a plot meant to shake the very foundations of Britain. With Watson at his side, he must face a formidable foe hiding beneath the Tower Bridge.



*******Spoiler Territory: Read on at your own risk********

The Ripper Legacy is a bit of disappointment. While Davies does get the atmosphere of Victorian England right and has a good grasp of the Holmes/Watson relationship, he really doesn't provide much that is new in the Ripper connection--except to produce a very unoriginal motive behind the murders with a very tiny twist--and he trots out a very tired Holmes pastiche trope. And--like others who have reviewed this on Goodreads, I was not enamored with the multiple viewpoints. It's a Homes story--let Watson tell it; don't keep bouncing us around from Watson's diaries to the kidnappers to the people behind the kidnappers to Mycroft and back again.

Anyone with much knowledge of the Ripper killings has to know that Prince Eddy has featured as a possible suspect or behind-the-scenes player in the horrific murders. And I get very tired of the resuscitation of Moriarty. Seriously--it's enough suspension of disbelief to accept that Holmes survived that meeting at the Falls. To have Holmes watch Moriarty plunge into that chasm (per the canon) and then bring him back to life (in various ways by various authors) is a bit much. I honestly would have enjoyed this one more if he had done something new and interesting with the Ripper story line instead of rehashing previous theories and a much-used Holmes pastiche plot device. ★★ --for the atmosphere and Holmes/Watson dynamic.

An interesting idea, but relies too heavily on a few of the original Doyle stories. Seriously, dialogue and description are taken more or less verbatim from Study in Scarlet.

An enjoyable mystery that I definitely flew through; I just was expecting more of a tie-in to the Ripper murders.

The middle drags a bit, but I loved the ending. Bumped it up from a 3 star to a 4 star read for me. Sherlock and Watson being badasses is one thing I'll never get tired of.

I loved the concept, but I felt the execution was lacking. It seems like Davies pulled his punches. As a result, it doesn't make anyone very happy, not purists or people accepting of a non-traditional Holmes story. But it's not bad... just boring, in a way. In fact, I lost most of my interest in the middle of the book, when it became a pretty straightforward retelling of A Study in Scarlet. Which, if I wanted to read, I would just... read. It's a good thing I got through it, because it does pick up at the end but by that time it was too little, too late.

This is one of my absolute favourite book adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. It's written very well, and draws you in and keeps you focused. The relationship between Holmes and Watson is especially interesting in this book, as it differs greatly in some ways from canon, but not in an absurd or unbelievable manner. I'd recommend this book to everybody, especially those who enjoy Sherlock Holmes stories and mysteries.