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The Affair of the Mysterious Letter

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The Affair of the Mysterious Letter

By: Alexis Hall
Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
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In this charming, witty, and weird fantasy novel, Alexis Hall pays homage to Sherlock Holmes with a new twist on those renowned characters.

Upon returning to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years fighting a war in another universe, Captain John Wyndham finds himself looking for somewhere to live, and expediency forces him to take lodgings at 221b Martyrs Walk. His new housemate is Miss Shaharazad Haas, a consulting sorceress of mercurial temperament and dark reputation.

When Miss Haas is enlisted to solve a case of blackmail against one of her former lovers, Miss Eirene Viola, Captain Wyndham finds himself drawn into a mystery that leads him from the salons of the literary set to the drowned back-alleys of Ven and even to a prison cell in lost Carcosa. Along the way he is beset by criminals, menaced by pirates, molested by vampires, almost devoured by mad gods, and called upon to punch a shark.

But the further the companions go in pursuit of the elusive blackmailer, the more impossible the case appears. Then again, in Khelathra-Ven reality is flexible, and the impossible is Miss Haas' stock-in-trade.

©2019 Alexis Hall (P)2019 Penguin Audio Detective Fantasy Fiction Historical Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Witty Magic Users Mind-Bending
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Critic reviews

“I really enjoyed this book. It was absolutely delightful, like a chocolate box, full of unexpected and brilliant references, sparklingly witty.” (Genevieve Cogman, author of The Invisible Library)

“The Mysterious Affair of the Letter is a witty, enjoyable, extravagantly imagined slant on the Sherlock Holmes canon. Hall nails the Holmesian aesthetic in marvelously amusing ways while taking us on an extended romp through a wild range of alternate universes with a bizarre cast of characters. Don't miss this fun, queer, clever intrigue!” (Malka Older, author of Infomocracy)

"I haven’t been so enchanted and delighted by a book in years. It’s like the literary equivalent of being wrapped in a blanket and being driven in a horse drawn carriage through a magical park filled with the most amazing things happening all around and feeling safe and loved all the way through. A sheer delight from start to finish and the most perfect blend of gentle humour, wild creativity and love for the feel of Sherlock Holmes." (Emma Newman, author of Atlas Alone)
Clever Reimagining • Imaginative Worldbuilding • Phenomenal Narration • Charming Transgender Watson • Witty Writing

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The Affair or the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall is a strange and original reimagining of Sherlock Holmes. Told from the perspective of John Watson or in this case John Wyndham as he recounts his first adventure with Sherlock Holmes, aka the sorcerous Ms. Shaharazad Haas; the story is written as a memoir. Part sci-fi, part fantasy, part paranormal, part steampunk, and part mystery it’s hard to categorize the genre. It’s certainly and original creation.

The mystery here is a letter blackmailing a frenemy of Ms. Haas and so Mrs. Wyndham who has just recently become the roommate to Ms. Hass is roped into the investigation. The two travel to distant places back in time, forward in time and a bunch of other wacky, crazy escapades that puts their lives in danger more than once.

Once you get use to the weirdness of quirkiness of the story and the world-building it’s very enjoyable. Clever and smartly written it weaves its tale and mystery beautifully. Though, I would say the mystery was huge, its resolution was inventive and unexpected. You start to warm up to the characters the more you get to know them.

One of the things I did found annoying was how the author chose to do omissions and how they were explained away. There was a lot of, “I won’t waste the readers time by going into such trifling matters” (paraphrasing). And it happens a fair amount throughout the book. A few times here and there is okay, but it happened far too often for my taste. And by the way the book is told in first-person, so FYI.

The narration is done by Nicholas Boulton, who is one of my favorite narrators. He does a phenomenal job and really brings the characters and the world to life with his performances.

Overall, I enjoyed it a great deal and I can’t wait for their next adventure together.

A truly original retelling of Sherlock Holmes

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This is a charming reworking of the Sherlock Holmes story, but it needed a good copy editor to weed out the unnecessary repetition. Several of the little jokes that were funny the first time, but soon became predictable and tedious. Even so, it was a fun little book and an enjoyable listen.

Charming

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A delightful reimagining of Sherlock holmes. The contrast between the reserved but literary My Wyndham and the most unreserved Miss Haas made for much fun and circumlocution. The story was imaginatively other worldly and the journeys across fantasy realms reminded me of Pratchett, as did the humanity behind even the sardonic quips.

Dirk Gently, hang up your hat.

Delightful reimagining

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If Holmes’ secret antics were more criminal and slatternly, and projected onto a screaming dome of dead stars to be narrated by a buttoned down Victorian gentleman, that would be this book. The imagery is evocative, the characters entertaining and the plot secondary

Surreal cosmic horror pastiche comedy of manners

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This was a fun and imaginative story; however, it felt like an early draft. It had too many threads that didn’t fully tie together at the end. Yet, almost all the threads were independently interesting.

I found myself wishing more than once that the Sherlock Holmes references were a bit more subtle, because they felt like being hit over the head with a copy of A Study in Scarlet. In addition, the Holmes-equivalent character seemed constrained by the need to be comparable to Holmes, and it made her oddly predictable. The Watson equivalent, though, was rather more charming than the original, and I would read about him in an entirely non-Holmes-adjacent story. (With more of the necromancer! And the political prisoner had so much potential too.)

Nicholas Boulton did a magnificent job with the narration. He dealt with some quite challenging voice acting decisions with creativity and clarity.

I hope at some point I can listen to Boulton’s performance of a sequel that’s entirely about something like John and the necromancer solving the mystery of where Shaharazad has gone. Much like with the original Holmes, the less-strong bits in this book didn’t stop me from liking the overall concept and wanting to read more.

An interdimensional romp with great narration

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Perfection. Nicholas Boulton's work is wonderful, as always:  His vocal performance is the icing on the already the already delicious cake that is this book!

Perfection!

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I love Alexis Hall steampunk and The Affair of the Mysterious Letter is my favorite so far. Definitely the best premise with the spin on Holmes and Watson, because you know Hall is going to just kill that. Plus with Hall's imagination, the adventure these two go on is beyond spectacular.

Great characters, a bunch of clever twists and turns, plus a really fun ending, The Affair of the Mysterious Letter was truly enjoyable.

I listened to the audiobook and I was blown away by narrator Nicholas Bolton. His performance is amazing, between the zillion different voices and accents... seriously wow!

Clever & Exciting - Wow, Boulton is Spectacular!

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This will not be to everyone’s taste, but I found it very entertaining, in a large part due to Nicholas Boulton’s fantastic narration. Many of the jokes wouldn’t have worked so well without his perfect deadpan delivery of the oblivious but honorable Wyndham.

Be warned, though, that this is only Sherlock in inspiration and language. The setting is
a ridiculous multiversal hodgepodge, spanning Vampires, Cthulhu, Necromancers, Atlantis and Steampunk. Hass is a selfish chaotic-neutral disaster who displays more power than sense, and Wyndham is a prudish and idealistic but heroic narrator who frequently misjudges the situation. The entire book is firmly tongue-in-cheek, but it’s well done and I found the way it is written both clever and hilarious.

Offbeat but delightful

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This was loads of fun and well read. Lots of Sherlock, with dashes of fairytales and dystopian classics.

Delightfully bananas

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This was an entertaining tale. A cross
between Sherlock Holmes and fantasy. The narrator was awesome!

Entertaining

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