A well-intentioned graphic novel, but one that's far too difficult to even follow, whether it be the spindly tags on the speech balloons so you don't know who says half the dialogue, or the very awkwardly presented 'action'. The first story, with the Irregulars trying to rescue a moll is too slight, and the second where Soviet activists and their rivals and Jack the Ripper all meet is just naff.

I received a free eARC of this graphic novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Baker Street Four - Billy, Tom, Charlie, and their cat - sometimes act as the eyes and ears of Sherlock Holmes in London's East End and they know they can rely on him for protection; you might know them as the Baker Street Irregulars. When Tom's girlfriend gets kidnapped, they'll have to put their detective skills to the test and along the way take in a new member becoming the youngest group of Victorian detectives.

Sherlock Holmes is one of my all time favorite characters and I have a hard time resisting anything that in some way involves the character. Of course, this graphic novel focuses on the Baker Street Irregulars and we get an inside look at what they do for Holmes and just how dangerous their lives can be. I've always wanted a greater look at these street urchins from what we've seen of them in the original stories and the adaptations, and this does a wonderful job showing what's on the line. I particularly enjoyed getting to know the Irregulars and their interactions with Holmes - and seeing this Victorian London in graphic novel form. The art, by the way, is excellent - the color palette really suits the story.

This graphic novel's easily a four star read, but my experience reading the eARC, or at least trying to figure out how I'm supposed to read it, made me lower my rating to just three stars. I don't know if it was just me, but it was difficult to enjoy a graphic novel when none of the words are in the right spots. All of the text is below each page worth of illustration, so at times it could be difficult to figure out what parts went in each bubble. That being said it could make it difficult to keep track of who exactly is speaking. Another issue, I went in thinking this would be a graphic novel marketed more toward MG audiences, but just to let you know some of the language and subject gets a bit iffy for that age group and at times this could easily fit the YA categorization.

Overall, if you're a fan of any incarnation of the character of Sherlock Holmes, this graphic novel is must read. It's all the better if you want to see Holmes from another fresh perspective. I'm definitely interested in continuing this series (and seeing a finished copy to sort out exactly what dialogue goes with where) in the future.

Though there isn't a lot of Sherlock Holmes in this, it's made up for by the wonderful artistry and great story. I was instantly hooked and couldn't get through it fast enough. I originally thought it was for children, but soon realised that it's probably for a little older (or maybe in the children in us adults).

A wonderful addition to the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre.

The first thing you should know about the graphic novel, The Baker Street Four by Olivier Legrande, J. B. Dijan, and David Etien– the graphics are gorgeous; second - the stories are great fun. With four extremely likable protagonists and with the wonderfully detailed depictions of Victorian London, this is a definite must-read for fans of the Sherlock Holmes tales or just really fine graphic novels.

It should be noted that, although, the main characters here are children, there are some issues that may not be suitable for children.

Thanks to Netgalley and Insight Comics for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

If I was rating this for the art alone it would be five stars, it's absolutely gorgeous! But the story was really just okay. There are two mini-cases in this particular volume and the Baker Street Irregular kids solve them while Sherlock Holmes is out of the country. I did not care for the first story mostly because it was about a 13 year old girl that was kidnapped and the kidnappers were going to sell her virginity. I don't deny that this kind of thing probably happened a lot in the time period but that doesn't mean I personally want to read about it when I'm just looking for a fun story to read. I probably would have skipped the entire thing if I had known that one of the stories was about sexual slavery. The second case was better as far as the subject matter but I also thought the plotline was a bit more muddled. I did however enjoy that one of the Irregulars was actually a girl in disguise and that she rescued a cat that helped them in their adventures. It was really adorable.

Two graphic novel adventures of mysteries solved by Sherlock Holmes’ young helpers when he is out of town. In the first story, a young lady friend of one of the boys is kidnapped and the boys uncover a sex trafficking ring. In the second story, the boys save a refugee socialist from Russia who is coming to Sherlock Holmes for help. It turns out her friend, a fellow Russian refugee, has been framed by the Tsar’s secret police for a copycat Ripper killing and will likely swing for all the murders if the boys can’t help her clear his name.

I really can’t figure out who the target audience of this is supposed to be. The art style and the main characters being middle school age makes it feel on the surface like it should be aimed at the middle grade crowd. But the content of the stories, discussions about sex trafficking, men paying more for virgins, pimps, naked female statues in illustrations, and murders on page on top of some strong profanity and other moderate swearing is most definitely not middle grade friendly. I would think twice before handing it to some teens too. So the stories feel like they’re aimed at adults, and the packaging makes it look like it’s aimed at kids. I see this as having a small fan base amongst adults who are die hard Sherlock Holmes fans and also enjoy graphic novels. I don’t plan on ordering it for our school library.

(This review will be posted May 2 at the link below.)

Such a beautifully illustrated graphic novel, wonderful story and inspired by Sherlock Holmes. What's not to love!?

Highly recommended.

Let me start off by saying the artwork in this book is spectacular. I felt like I was looking at a Dan Bluth cartoon the whole time. It did a really great job of setting the mood.

The Baker Street Four are three street children who work for Sherlock Holmes and I guess their cat. These are the cases they solve when Sherlock is off on cases of his own. The stories are fun, set at a frenetic pace.

The Baker Street Four follows the adventures of the street kids that helped Sherlock Holmes with his investigations - they snooped for him, actually. Baker Street Irregulars consists of mostly boys and then a girl disguised as a boy and it's quite logical considering the time period. I'm not a fan of Sherlock Holmes and I've only read The Hound of Baskervilles and I wasn't a big fan of that either. Thus I wanted to try this, since I liked the different approach. The comic consist of smaller stories and in all of those the kids try to solve a situation of sorts. There's kidnapping, Jack the Ripper and whatnot, but hardly any Sherlock Holmes in any of these. He's always away, which was kind of stupid. The comic was very sporadic and hard to follow. The plot of the stories didn't really work and it was hard to keep track what was happening in any of them. Also, the stories weren't that interesting either and hardly anything happened, which made this quite boring. It's hard to say to whom this was meant and that was the downfall eventually.

The art is magnificent in all its detail! The thin line work works well and the panels are full of magic and wonder, which I enjoyed a lot. The colors are beautiful too and everything in the comic looks so interesting, which was also the reason why I decided to try this. Because of this it's sad that the content otherwise is meager. Art-wise this is totally five stars. Perhaps one story would've worked better and a slower pacing would've made wonders too. The Baker Street Four is a different kind of Sherlock comic, but not there yet. It's not a bad comic per se, but just not there yet.

Oliver Twist meets Sherlock Holmes in this fantastic graphic novel about a rag-tag group of street urchins that lead their own investigations when the great detective is unavailable.

I really enjoyed both the story and artwork. The story flowed well and the dialogue between the young characters was great.

This is an excellent graphic novel. The artwork, the story and the characters all come together really nicely.

The Baker Street Four are a group of children who assist Sherlock Holmes, but when 'Sherlock is away the children play' and they solve their own mysteries. All based in London, in the first story the children solve the crime of a missing young girl who is kidnapped from the streets. In the second story the children get mixed up in the conflict between the Russian Tsar and the Revolutionaries he is trying to put down.

The storylines are engaging and have a good pace and they certainly held my attention. The artwork is excellent with really clear and bright colours, and very detailed pictures. It was a pleasure to read and easy to follow.

The one aspect I truly enjoyed was the context. The pictures really illustrated London and I especially liked the drawings of St Paul's and the Embankment. It was all done really well.

In summary this is a great graphic novel and an entertaining story.

Book – The Baker Street Four, Vol 1
Author – Olivier Legrand, J. B. Dijan, David Etien (Illustrations)
Star rating - ★★★★★
No. of Pages – 96
Cover – Perfect!
Would I read it again – Yes
Genre – Comic, Crime, Sherlock Holmes


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


NOTE: So, thanks to the handy warning at the beginning that it might not read correctly on all devices, I wasn't freaked out that my Kindle copy didn't read right, at first. The text wasn't inside the text bubbles, so I went back to Netgalley, downloaded as a acsm file and that worked just fine once uploaded into Adobe Digital Editions! If you want to read this as Kindle and get the same problem, this is your solution.

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Well, I'll admit that I'm a little surprised. I kind of expected this to be YA friendly, but with the swearing and talk about pimps it really isn't. More NA and up. For fans of Sherlock Holmes, it's a great read and an intriguing one, but definitely not for kids.

This was a fun, adventurous collection of two stories that kept the excitement going from one page to another, including Sherlock Holmes just enough to show the connection. The art/illustrations are gorgeous and so detailed. The attention to detail in the historical period and the Sherlock Holmes situation are spot on and well integrated into the story.

Story 1, The Blue Curtain, is a little more adult than the other, what with swearing and talk about a pimp and a brothel, with less than appropriate language for a YA market. The second story, The Rabúkin Case still has the swearing but the story is more political, about a copycat Jack the Ripper and Russian refugees being tracked by Tsarists.

Overall, it's a great compilation of two Sherlock Holmes inspired stories that really do the original man justice and stick faithfully to the type of adventure and investigative techniques he would use, while allowing the kids to take center state.

This is a fun graphic novel for Sherlock fans young and old.

If you like Sherlock Holmes, there is very little of Sherlock Holmes in this series, from what I can see. It is really about four of his Baker Street irregulars, that he would have help him in spying for him. And, after all, that is what it says on the tin...I mean the book cover.

So, this is more like reading a Dicken's story, rather than one of Sherlock Holmes, which the group getting into saving girls from being forced into slavery, and working with Russian revolutionaries. Very boys adventure sort of thing.

Truth be told, I was rather bored with it. I guess I wanted more Sherlock Holmes. It all seemed as though it were written by someone from the 21st Century, who had read Dickens, and imagined how it must be like.

My suggestion? Read Dickens and Sherlock Holmes books instead. If you like boy adventures, I guess this is ok, but not much mystery involved here.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

The graphics were obviously the first thing that pulled me in. They are so detailed and truly recreated the essence of 1800s London’s East End. The children are these adorable scamps that looked like something out of Oliver Twist. I think Doyle would be proud actually at how well this time period of England and his characters were captured in a graphic novel format.

The story was well plotted and interesting. I felt the authors did a great job encapsulating the characterizations of the Baker Street Irregulars within these pages.

The dialogue was well written and seemed appropriate for the time period. I think the old English style phrases and sentence structure might be a little hard for the average person to understand but if you stick with it the story is actually good. Have to admit coming from an Irish family I was a little annoyed at the derogatory uses towards the Irish but when it comes to British stories, especially during this time period, it comes with the territory so you have to let it go and realize the authors are being true towards historical facts and not racist. In that vein they created believable characters for the Baker Streets to interact with for their story.

This is a unique idea focusing on the Irregulars because when it comes to Holmes his story has been told so often and in so many different variations but rarely with any emphasis on this adorable group of mini-spies.