This is an interesting take on Holmes and Watson with the addition of the supernatural. I love that this started out as fan fiction. I’m only familiar with a few Holmes stories so most of what was included was new to me. I think the changes will keep even an avid Holmes reader interested.

As a fantasy reimagining of Sherlock Holmes and set against the backdrop of London in the midst of its dance with Jack the Ripper, this book certainly seems to have it all. I did really enjoy this book, I think it was fun and interesting and the characters were fantastic. Unfortunately, murder mysteries don't hold my attention very well, hence the rating. However, I think anyone who likes Sherlock Holmes would absolutely love this and I highly recommend it.

I really tried to love this book but I, unfortunately, couldn't stand it. I had such a hard time with all the references to Sherlock Holmes. Don't get me wrong, I love Sherlock Holmes, but this felt so much not as its own story and it just wasn't for me. DNF.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All expressed opinions are my own and do not reflect any stance or position held by the author or publisher. This did not affect my rating or review in any way.

Katherine Addison is one of my very favorite authors, so I was so thrilled to have the chance to read her newest book. The Angel of the Crows wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but once I realized what I was reading, I truly loved it.

Basically, this is an alternate reality retelling of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock is an angel. There are all kinds of crazy fantastical creatures in this story and haunting London, and Addison uses the Holmes tales to their best effect, I think — which is using your assumptions related to those stories to surprise the reader at every turn. I don’t want to give too much away here, since I think part of the fun is seeing how these twists and turns unfold, but there were multiple times while reading that I literally gasped out loud. I thoroughly enjoyed the world and, in fact, my only complaint is that I wanted a bit more development of the alternate London. The inner workings of the political world of the angels seemed so fascinating and yet we only got to scratch the surface. I wanted more!

I also really appreciated that this was overall a positive novel, which seems funny to say when it’s mostly about solving murders. But one thing I love about Addison’s works is that they always seem to come from a positive, optimistic place and this one was no different.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. I think if you know going in that it is a fantasy spin on a Sherlock Holmes retelling, and if that appeals to you, you are going to love it.

This was such a wonderful read. It’s like an alternate dimension of Sherlock Holmes in 1880’s London where supernaturals exist with public knowledge. It doesn’t read like your typical paranormal/ urban fantasy though, it has a more serious tone I’d expect from a historical fiction mystery novel set in Victorian London. The author does a marvelous job of sneaking in various supernaturals without making it the focus of the story. There are several surprises I was not expecting at all. And it’s a standalone :) All in all, a very enjoyable read.

DNF @ 32%
Just not enough here to keep me going. Let's delve into the specifics below.

Holmes Mysteries
I came to a realization as I was reading this, and investigated it in other reviews to see if I was correct (which I was), all the mysteries (except for Jack the Ripper) are all well known Sherlock Holmes cases. They all resolve the same as the originals. For someone like me who is familiar with many of the original Holmes stories and knows how most of them are solved this took away a lot of appeal. I get that it's supposed to be about nostalgia and a new setting for Holmes (plus add in Jack the Ripper) but honestly I just can't bring myself to navigate this dense writing just to read outcomes to mysteries I already know.

Jack the Ripper
While still slightly intrigued about how Katherine Addison plans to resolve the Jack the Ripper case in this story; it wasn't enough to keep me going. The writing is absolutely beautiful here, and her set-up of the snippets of the Ripper's point of view are clever. I absolutely loved each one of them. It's almost tempting to just read those pieces of the story until the end of the book; but that feels sacrilege and I just can't bring myself to disrespect the effort Addison has put into this. Additionally my greatest fear, and one of the reasons I also didn't finish this, is that the Ripper cases will end unsolved as they are today in this story. A thoroughly unsatisfying end that I just wanted to avoid.

Beautifully Written, but Dense
Some books are just so beautifully written you don't care what the story is. Addison almost achieves that for me here. This is a gorgeous piece of prose taken on it's own without any other context. But it's also dense. The writing matches the Victoria era on the story and really puts you into the place and time of London. It's tragic that instead of finding this glorious, I instead found this to be more dragging density along with the plot that didn't have enough to keep me interested.

Overall
I am sure there will be people who think this is the best book ever. And I wouldn't disagree with them. It just wasn't for me at the moment I had it in hand. There is a possibility I could come back to it if the mood strikes me to want some Holmes stories repurposed. The density of the story reminds me of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (although not quite that epic with footnotes) which is one of my absolute favourite books of all time. So I may be inclined to blame the pandemic for my inability to focus, or I really just found this too predictable knowing that the Holmes mysteries will all be resolved in the way I already know.
I would say if you have any interest in this book give it a shot. But don't be afraid to put it down early if it's just not for you.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Okay, so I really loved this book. A very shadowy London in the 1880s that’s different from the city we know in one main way: it has angels crawling over it. Some fall and become evil while others are like guardian angels for the buildings. We follow an angel who is neither and both — think Holmes but with wings, which is also how the author said this story came into being, i.e., as wingfic. The angel meets the other protagonist in just the way Holmes met Watson — but this character is named Doyle after the author, instead of Watson. Together, they discover much about each other as they solve cases.

I didn’t mind that the author put a supernatural spin on Holmes’s classic cases. But I would have liked more backstory about why this version of London was the way it was. I mean, why angels? And there were shifters too, so why them? Aside from that, I found this to be an entertaining and interesting read.

This book is different from what I expected. It was fun but not really my cup of tea. I'm sure the story will appeal to others so I suggest you give it a try!

I enjoyed this one. It reads more YA just for those that don't love that tone in their writing. I liked the fantastical elements and the magic. The character development was solid. I did find the pacing a little slow at times, but that was easy to overlook. I would recommend it.

I’m not normally a fan of urban fantasy, or fantasy in general, but if you put Sherlock Holmes in it, turns out I can’t read it quickly enough. Not that we ever see that character name, or Watson, here. Instead, it’s a personality resemblance and twists on familiar cases in a world with magic and vampires and angels.

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison is set in a Victorian world where three kinds of angels exist: those protecting public locations, whether cathedral or hospital or Whitehall; those who are Fallen, monsters to be feared; and the Nameless, those without location or purpose or title.

And then there’s Crow. As Crow manages to live in a flat, no one is quite sure what to make of the being. Crow is bound to no dominion and transcends the categories. The role is still that of consulting detective, asked in by Inspector Lestrade, though. There’s just a more supernatural explanation for Crow not understanding a lot about how people work emotionally and not sleeping or eating.

Dr. J.H. Doyle has been invalided home from Afghanistan in the late 1800s after being wounded by a Fallen. The doctor, with his own secrets, winds up sharing a flat with Crow and tagging along on cases. There are a number of famous stories rewritten and included in this book, interwoven with the search for Jack the Ripper. They include A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, “The Speckled Band”, “The Copper Beeches”, “The Yellow Face”, and others. All are given their own twists by inclusion of the supernatural characters.

I’m not a fan of wingfic, particularly, and you can see the obvious starting point there, but I found this to be more. I am left wondering, though, why it wasn’t called The Angel of London, as that’s how Crow titles itself. And I did sometimes miss the use of the name “Sherlock”.

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison riffs on both the Sherlock tv series and the original Conan Doyle short stories, which makes sense when you learn that the novel, essentially a series of linked short stories, originated as Sherlock wingfic. Crow is a winged being called an angel, and the world's only consulting detective. Doyle is a military doctor wounded by a Fallen Angel in Afghanistan, with resulting supernatural as well as physical damage. The setting is fantastical Victorian London.

Initially, the feeling of having serial numbers filed off is very strong, but there's enough intriguing worldbuilding about this world's commonplace angels and other supernatural beings that it becomes its own thing, and the twists on the original Doyle tales, such as by adding more women, are a lot of fun.

This book was okay. I felt like is was a bit misrepresented. The blurb makes me think its a conglomerate of beings and lots of fantastical world building and intrigue. The reality was an angle Sherlock Holmes tracking Jack the Ripper.

I was disappointed because I love, LOVE, the Goblin Emperor and this book was not of the same ilk. The writing was fantastic. The world building amazing. Katherine Addison has created something beautiful, It just wasn't what I was prepared for and that made me disappointed.

I finally managed to read a couple of chapters of this book, since the premise alone sounded so interesting. Supernatural beings with the 1888 time period and Jack the Ripper? It sounded awesome. But sadly, the classic writing style that seems to highly resemble Doyle's books didn't work for me. The writing felt very uptight and while I know that the main character is very gifted, I still didn't care to keep going. Even the supernatural beings didn't appear as much as I expected. I think I went into this book with the wrong expectations....

Open-minded Ripperologists and the more unusual Baker Street Irregulars will appreciate the way this alternate Victorian novel reworks the familiar fictional and true crime elements. Fantasy readers will enjoy the steampunk elements, and still others will revel in the spectacular world-building and the narrator‘s ironic voice. Addison never disappoints!

The Angel of the Crows is an absolute delight for anyone who has a passing fancy in Sherlock Holmes and the paranormal. If you enjoyed the Jackaby series by William Ritter, you'll get along with this book extremely well.

The story follows Crow (this book's version of Sherlock), who is a genius, scatterbrained Angel of London (he has wings!) and Dr. Doyle (Watson), who has just returned from war with an injury and a secret ailment as they cycle through the various tales of Sherlock Holmes, often with a supernatural spin, whilst trying to solve the overarching mystery of Jack the Ripper. The structure is quite episodic, owing to the fact that we work through A Study in Scarlet, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Yet, the search for the person behind the Jack the Ripper crimes ties it all together, as well as the character arcs and relationships.

I don't have any particular attachment to the original Sherlock Holmes stories but I do really enjoy Sherlock retellings in all forms; whether Sherlock and Watson are named characters in the story or not. I'm also a huge fan of historical paranormal/urban fantasy books, so this book was exactly in my wheelhouse. This is not the first paranormal spin on Sherlock and I imagine it won't be the last, so there isn't a huge amount of originality here but it is an extremely enjoyable caper.

On the subject of queerness.... [SPOILERS] Prior to reading this book, I had seen a number of reviews saying that they were expecting it to be queer and were disappointed when that didn't come to fruition and I'm a little bit confused by that interpretation because, to me, this book was very queer. Crow's asexuality is discussed at length and both Crow and Doyle are canonically genderfluid, which is integrated into both plot and character work very well. I wonder if the queerness is not as overt for some people because the majority of the discussions surrounding queerness are not romantic in nature. And, I think it is important to acknowledge that stories and characters can still be queer when the queerness is platonic or just simply an element that makes up a character profile.

I've had Addison's The Goblin Emperor on my shelf for a couple of years (I actually have 2 copies for some reason) and whilst I've heard nothing but good things about that book, I've never gotten around to reading it. It seems that people who read TGE before this book had extremely high expectations that weren't necessarily met. However, this just makes me all the more excited to read Addison's most popular work.

I love Sherlock Holmes. I love alternate timelines. I love stories with angels, werewolves, and vampires. I love the 1880's especially Jack the Ripper times.

In this alternate 1888 London, there are angels, the Fallen, the Nameless, and werewolves and vampires roaming the streets. Most importantly, there is the Angel of the Crows keeping watch over his City.

Where do I start with this book? Some readers were not enthused but I adored this book and am planning to read it again. I don't often do that with books. I grew up with Sherlock Holmes and I was dubious that anyone could successfully fiddle with the stories but Katherine Addison aced it. I grew to like the main characters very much. The author also added a few surprises that I don't want to expand on as they would be spoilers. To be honest, this book is not enough for me. I would love to read more adventures with Crow and Doyle.

This book is the perfect mix of mystery and supernatural. It truly had the potential to be something amazing.

I liked the characters and the unique elements the author brought to the original Sherlock stories, but when it came down to it I really feel like I was just reading the original Sherlock books. Further, I really struggled to get into this book. I actually started it and stopped multiple times.

All in all, unfortunately, I found this book to be exceedingly average.

The Angel of the Crows is a period historical urban fantasy mashup of Holmes & Watson and Jack the ripper by Katherine Addison. Released 23rd June 2020 by Macmillan on their Tor Forge imprint, it's 448 pages and available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a wingfic retetelling of several Holmes and Watson adventures with Holmes reimagined as a black winged angel guarding over London, Dr. Doyle (Watson) battling a supernatural injury and the both of them solving mysteries and generally keeping London safer for the populace.

The author has a strong and deft touch with characterization and detailed flowing period dialogue. I felt, however, that the central characters weren't ever made to be anything but Holmes & Watson (with wings, yes, and Watson's trying not to turn into a soulless creature of the night... but other than that). I'm an admittedly huge canonical Holmes & Watson nerd, and the plots of the stories included are instantly recognizable and mostly unchanged.

There are some moderately subtle elements of gender fluidity (which provide a plot twist) and a sweet bromance between the titular characters in the book, but nothing graphic. In fact, the attraction(?) was too subtle for me. I wouldn't hold it up as a beacon of representation for LGBQTIA readers. It is straight up Holmes and Watson with supernatural creatures. The author is a very capable wordsmith and I did enjoy reading it very much, but the blurb promising "not the characters you expect" was a bit misleading because they were exactly the characters I expected. (and that, at least in my case, isn't a bad thing).

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more if it was just a little bit shorter. The first 10 or so chapters basically follow the same plot, point for point, of the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock show. The characters are copies of Sherlock and Watson. I don't mind that, but the summary literally says these are not the characters you think they are while basically being direct copies of them and the plot lol

The latter half of this book slowed down for me, the pacing just didn't work for me, and things felt a little convoluted. I did end up listening to the audio for this from my library and the narrator Imogen Church does a great job.

For a retelling, I did enjoy this and I'd be interested in picking up more by this author. I really liked her writing style, this book just wasn't my favorite.

The Angel of the Crows is a wingfic (fan fiction which imagines one character with wings) of Sherlock Holmes with a supernatural twist where Sherlock (Crow) is an angel and Dr. Watson (Dr. Doyle) is a hell-hound.

Crow is an angel with only a piece of his habitat in his pocket because if angels loose their habitat entirely, they fall. And this fall is like when a dead bird falls off a tree. Instead, it is more like a nuclear bomb.

One such fall of an angel while tending to soldiers in Afghan, injures Dr. Doyle's leg and changes him into a hellhound. So, Dr. J. H. Doyle has no other option than to go back to London and live on his measly pension.

Unlike most of the historical fantasy novels, the language is lucid and easy to understand. The whole story is said through Dr. Doyle's perspective. The novel is divided into nine parts, each of which is based upon a new mystery/case. And some of these cases are pretty well-known, like 'The Hound of Baskerville', 'The Sign of the Four' etc. I love the way that the Whitechapel Murders and Jack the Ripper mystery were added to the story. I also admire the friendship bond between Crow and Dr. Doyle.

One of the major reason for giving this book a 3/5 is that the stories are just too predictable and familiar because storylines are exactly similar the original Sherlock Holmes except for the supernatural twists and Jack the Ripper part. I last read Sherlock Holmes two year ago but I was still able to predict at least seventy per cent of the mysteries. None of the names are changed except for Crow (Sherlock) and Dr. Doyle (Dr. Watson). I also felt that the whole system of the angels was very confusing and blurry.

Overall, the novel is engaging, entertaining and a wonderful retelling of Sherlock Holmes. I strongly recommend this book to all the Sherlock fans because although the novel is heavily based on it, the author has done justice by adding supernatural elements and plot twists here and there.

I thank NetGalley and Macmillan/Tor-Forge for giving me this wonderful opportunity to review this book. Also, this book has added 'The Goblin Emperor' (Katherine Addison's previous book) to my ever-growing list of TBR.