The Revenge of Moriarty: Sherlock Holmes' Nemesis Lives Again by, John E. Gardner, Narrated by, Robin Sachs

The Revenge of Moriarty: Sherlock Holmes' Nemesis Lives Again by, John E. Gardner, Narrated by, Robin Sachs

Received from Audiobookjukebox & AudioGo

11 hours 56 minutes

I am a Holmes fan but I maybe shouldn’t have read this one so close to finishing Lyndsay Faye’s Dust & Shadow because this one just didn’t measure up. Also I am a huge fan of narrator Robin Sachs I requested this book because I thought it was told by Moriarty (and it is at times but not enough) because as I said after Faye’s book Simon Vance is my audiobook Sherlock Holmes.

 As much as I love Robin Sachs I don’t feel this was one of his best narrations at times he sounded a bit bored and that made me feel bored, at other times his characterizations were fantastic I would get excited and sit up and pay attention with some of the characters but at other times it lulled me and made me wonder if I was even listening. Towards the end of the book when there were some different characters is when Robin Sachs shined on this audio and I think the feeling of boredom came from the text and maybe Robin was just as bored as I was. This book is no way diminishes my fangirl love for Robin Sachs.

I did not realize this was a second book in the series however this one is a decent stand alone, but there were times he would mention something about what happened in the last book and leave me wondering what all I did miss. So I would recommend starting with the first one. This story was ok it just didn’t really ever grab me but I did feel like it does fit in the Sherlock Canon, because let’s face it not all of Doyle’s Holmes stories are completely riveting either.

This is a hard review to write because I liked this book and didn’t like it at the same time and I am trying to put my finger on what it was I didn’t like and maybe it is the fact that it is the middle book in a trilogy and I hadn’t read the first one so this was anti-climatic for me and maybe if I go back and listen to the first and third maybe I would get a fuller story. I was hoping this story was told fully from Moriarty’s point of view and thought I’d learn more about Moriarty there were a few things *no spoilers* that made me want to finish this entire series hoping those questions would be answered. However I am just not sure I like Gardner’s writing style there were times this book dragged and then would pick up only to drag again, I guess that was my main problem the story was not consistent it was very up and down and not in a good way.

I’d say if you are a Holmes fan no matter what you will like this book but I would highly recommend starting with book one and that these books need to be better identified as a trilogy (assuming it’s just three) but I see that not audible or goodreads lists these as a series which I will have to see if I can remedy at least on GR maybe will send a message to audible because I think these need to be read in the correct order.

3 Stars