I wanted to love this book so much. I adore Alexis Hall and love Sherlock Holmes retellings.. But I didn't enjoy this one. I felt like it dragged on and I didn't really care for the characters.

Take one large trope of Sherlock Holmes, add in bits of Lovecraft, Robert Howard, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen, shake well, and the reader gets The Affair of the Mysterious Letter. Captain John Wyndham has been wounded and left the military. Looking for lodging, he ends up rooming with Ms. Shaharazad Haas at 221b Martyrs Walk. As Ms. Haas is a consulting sorceress, Capt. Wyndham ends up being recruited as her wingman in various cases that she undertakes. This tale is of the first case that they pursued together - a case of blackmail seeking to stop the marriage of Miss Eirene Viola to Miss Cora Beck. In the course of the case, the pair visit u=other realms, get help from a witch, take on a vampire, enjoy a luxury train ride and punch a shark. Not to mention visit the theatre and interrupt a literary salon. If you enjoy mash-ups of genres, you will enjoy Alexis Hall's The Affair of the Mysterious Letter!

I love every Alexis Hall book I’ve picked up, and I’m sure I’ll love this one when I can finally spare the time for it!

The very definition of a madcap caper. Ridiculous and OTT in the best possible way. Captures much of the essence of Holmes while being nothing like it.

Interesting premise but it just didn't grab me for reason. It took a bit to get into the story and I had a hard time staying interested in the plot. Would give the author another try though as I thought some of the writing was interesting .

This was so fun! I did this via audiobook and enjoyed every single minute of it, I did not want this one to end. I did not realize this was an homage to Sherlock Holmes going into it but could definitely tell it was as I went along. It was unique, magical, and just what I needed, I cannot say enough about this one!

Captain John Wyndham has returned from fighting in a war in another universe and needs somewhere to live, so he finds himself taking a roommate with Ms. Shaharazad Haas, a sorceress with a dark reputation. She is shortly after enlisted to solve a case of blackmail against one of her former lovers, Miss Eirene Viola, and he is there to help Ms. Haas solve the case.

I was in hysterics at some of their interactions, and the way Ms. Haas would be so blasé blasé about things and the way Captain Wyndham would not be. They were a perfect pair, and boy I could really use some more of these two in my life.

This would be a great one if you need something after a dark or heavy read, but I do not recommend that you pass this one up. It was a hidden gem, and I absolutely loved it.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Ace Books for the e-galley to review.

I absolutely love retellings, and this one did not disappoint. I feel like Holmes and Watson have been done a million times, but this iteration just felt so fresh.

A fun Sherlock-esque mystery with a paranormal twist. Highly recommended for all public fiction collections.

Captain John Watson--that is, Wyndham--needs a place to stay, but he may have signed up for more than he realizes when he moves in with the sorceress Shaharazad Haas in 221B Martyrs Walk. The amazing setting of the city Khelathra-Ven offers a brilliant backdrop to a very human story. Wyndham's telling this tale in retrospect, but he clearly has great affection for his former roommate. With any luck this is a series opener, and Hall uses so many different cities, all with their own laws of society and physics, so deftly, it would be a shame if this were a one-off. There's a ton to explore here, and Hall provides a deep taste of a tantalizing universe with a charming narrator.

This is a review of the audio version.

I originally intended to review The Affair of the Mysterious Letter when it came out in June, but shortly before it was released, I took a three month sabbatical from reviewing and put the book aside. I ended up listening to the audio version instead, and I’m so glad I did. Nicholas Boulton’s performance is outstanding, and he brings the principal characters and this story to life. Funny and weird, clever and charming, The Affair of the Mysterious Letter is a totally bonkers and completely wonderful homage to Sherlock Holmes with Miss Shaharazad Haas – a pansexual, drug addicted sorceress with questionable morals – as Holmes. Watson is Captain John Wyndham, a gay, transsexual man raised by repressed and religious parents, who’s recently returned after five years fighting a war in another universe. These two pair up after John responds to an ad for a roommate and finds himself living with Shaharazad at 221b Martyrs Walk. When Miss Haas agrees to help a former lover identify the person blackmailing her, Wyndham is drawn into the investigation, too. If it sounds confusing, it is. But it’s also marvelous, and Boulton’s narration is sublime. His characterization of the prim, easily scandalized, darling Wyndham is an absolute revelation. Wonderful and wacky, The Affair of the Mysterious Letter is a five star DIK.

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall is a Doyle/Lovecraft mashup and homage. Captain John Wyndham needs a roommate, and ends up with consulting sorceress Shaharazad Haas. Co-tenant required. Rent reasonable to the point of arousing suspicion. Tolerance for blasphemies against nature an advantage. No laundry service.

This bit made me literally laugh out loud: Just as I was beginning to contemplate the opportunities my unexpected successes had placed before me I was struck down by an extratemporal jezail, a fiendish weapon whose bullets displace themselves in time and space, meaning the injuries they cause recur unpredictably. Although I am quite well most of the time I shall, on occasion, be afflicted with a stabbing pain in my shoulder or my leg or, most peculiarly, by the recollection of such a pain in the distant past, long before I had even thought of going to war. Such a condition made me unfit for military service. (Fans of Sherlock Holmes know that John Watson’s wound is described in different stories as being in different places.)

I was familiar with Hall from the Kate Kane paranormal noir series (which I need to catch up on, one of these days). If you like meta, and dry humor, and pastiche, you will very likely like this book.

While I enjoyed this book overall, it did take a little bit for it to catch me.. Readers who need something that grabs them from page one may lose out on a fun read that feels both familiar and entirely strange at the same time. Once I was invested in the plot, I was able to enjoy the author's writing style, but I worried at the beginning that it would be style over substance. Ultimately, I am glad I stuck with the book and have been able to recommend it to both fantasy and mystery readers (though only those who are willing to go a little out of their comfort zones).

i'm really not quite sure what i've just read.

this was without a doubt the most absurd and chaotic book i have ever encountered.

it took a very long time for me to get past the first few chapters because of all the fantastical and bizarre information being thrust upon me, but once i got past all that the story was quite enjoyable though rather baffling.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

An enjoyable mystery read! A la Watson, John Wyndham narrates his adventures with his new housemate, the brilliant and eccentric detective and sorceress Sheharazad Haas. Solving a case of blackmail leads them into multiple fictional worlds and realities. I enjoyed the hat tips to the Holmes canon, although the occasional references to realms, kingdoms and peoples not directly related to the plot made the book slow going in parts rather than adding color. Still, I look forward to the next adventure!

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.

A delicious mash-up of Sherlock Holmes (Shaharazad Hass, with her companion, alchemist and military veteran Captain John Wyndham), Lovecraftian mythos, Dracula, and The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. Shaharazad Hass, a consulting detective as well as sorceress, accepts a commission from an old flame, who is threatened with blackmail unless she breaks off her engagement. The list of possible enemies is long, but as Shaharazad and John focus on the most likely suspects, one after the other is eliminated, including the vampire Contessa, another of Shaharazad’s many, many ex-lovers. I found the prose delightful in its replication of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s narrative, transported into a world of magic, demons, mind-altering drugs, and a sideways-in-time journey into the mysterious, menacing world of Chambers’s Carcosa and The King in Yellow. Weird and shiveringly wonderful reading!

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

***Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
A quirky, fun mystery with some unique characters!

Title: The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
Author: Alexis Hall
Pages: 352
Genre: Sci-Fi/ Fantasy/ Retelling
Series or Stand-Alone: Stand-Alone
Stars: 4/5
LGBTQ?: Yes! Trans representation as well!
Pass the Bechdel Test? (Depiction of Women): Yes
Trigger Warning: Some violence and drug use

I received a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Story: This was such an interesting book! It takes its inspiration from the Sherlock Holmes world but places it in a completely different dimension/world. We follow John Wyndam, a wounded officer against the war on the Queen of Nothingness (with cool aliens and crazy weapons) who takes a flat with the sorceress Shaharazad Haas. She is as eccentric as one would hope! She and John work to solve the mystery of a threat from a former love of Shaharazad. The twist was unexpected and the worlds we travel through as well-done! I would love to see additional books in this series.

Recommendations: For Fantasy/Sci-Fi lovers and YA sci-fi. For YA and up!