"Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor, returns with The Angel of the Crows, a fantasy novel of alternate 1880s London, where killers stalk the night and the ultimate power is naming.

This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.

In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent.

Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows."

Alternate history geek in me is excited, but so is the Ripperologist in me!

The second book published as by Katherine Addison (who also writes as Sarah Monette) is nothing like her excellent The Goblin Emperor, except for being also fantasy and equally well written.

In fact, this is a Sherlock Holmes novel, with different names and a very different London. The doctor wounded in Afghanistan is the intelligent and insightful J. H. Doyle. The eccentric investigator is an angel named Crow. Yes, this fantasy London has angels, also hellhounds, necrophages, vampires, and werewolves.

This is something of a novel in stories, with separate episodes corresponding to the Sign of the Four, the Speckled Band, the Hound of the Baskervilles, and others which a more Sherlockian reader might recognize but I did not.

The characters are complex and sympathetic, the puzzles are intriguing, and the world-building is first-rate. I enjoyed it. Someone who is not tired of Sherlock Holmes pastiches would probably like it even more.

In a world where fallen angels wreak havoc on the mortal world, two unlikely men move in together, leading to an engaging story of mystery and fantasy that will keep readers up late, turning the pages. While Sherlock fans will enjoy this fantastical retelling of their beloved characters, even those unfamiliar with Arthur Conan Doyle's characters will find Dr. Doyle and Crow to be a humorous pair worthy of continuing the tradition of Sherlock and Watson.

What that blurb does not mention is that this is Sherlock Holmes fanfiction. Sherlock is an angel called Crow, and Watson is... well something, and called JH Doyle. Moriarty is a vampire, which is just perfect (however, his character isn't done justice here at all). The world is filled with paranormal beings, which gives an interesting twist to it all. Ideas are a bit modernized, and most blatant racism and sexism has been filtered out. There even is some discussion regarding gender added.

But apart from that, it is still very much the Sherlock Holmes stories as Arthur Conan Doyle wrote them, at times literally. The cases are the same, and resolve in very similar ways. The only somewhat original parts are the Jack the Ripper chapters, but even these aren't too distinctive from other stories either and bring very little new. 

Which very quickly brings me to rating this, which I'm finding very difficult. Because I did enjoy it a great deal. But how much of that enjoyment comes from its almost literal transcription of the original Holmes stories? Most of the twists and additions were great... but I feel there weren't quite enough of those to justify giving this a very high rating.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
I'm attempting to be better about dropping books if I'm not interested by a quarter of the way in. After getting through the first section of the book, I decided to stop. Sadly, for a book that is hyped as ,"This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting", it's not just that interesting to me. It's a Sherlock Holmes retelling with magical creatures. Some of it seems word-for-word from either the original text, or sounds like the BBC Sherlock series. I'm somewhat surprised it passed copyright, except for the fact that Sherlock has been published for over 100 years, which makes copyright rules different.
So-if you're wanting a Sherlock Holmes comparison with various creatures-this will work for you. Otherwise, you might want to pass.

This is the most marvelous take on Sherlock Holmes that I have read in ages, and coming from a completely unexpected set of angles, too. I would describe the concept as roughly “Sherlock Holmes is so weird that he’s practically inhuman, so what if we just stopped trying to pretend that he was human at all; and then we could do many interesting things that make him just as weird in new directions; like how’s about we make him a lot more like a cat? That’d be cool, right?” And the genius of Katherine Addison is that she can take something with a bit of silliness to it, and still make it overflowing with heart, and thrilling to boot.

I don't know that I can adequately capture what Addison pulls off with this -- because I started reading Sherlock Holmes when I was 8 or so, and rereading and rereading until I practically had some stories memorized, and it is utterly clear that Addison has been incredibly thorough in her grasp and reuse of those details. At the same time, Doyle and Crow are certainly *not* Holmes and Watson -- not in the ways that you would expect, and indeed, halfway through, we learn that they are not Holmes and Watson in ways that you would not have expected, either.

I loved the worldbuilding - and it's carefully constructed, even when it's not taking centerstage (as it mostly isn't). The concept of angels, and the Consensus, and the Nameless, seems perfectly matched to London and its palimpsest of buildings and monuments remembered and forgotten. Though we don't learn much about the Fallen, I really, really hope that Addison will write more in this world; and that we'll learn more about them in future volumes. But even if we don't, this is a triumph, and I've preordered both the hardcover and the audiobook. Highly, highly recommended.

The Angel of the Crows really is not the book you think it is. It really isn't. Normally that is not a bad thing but I am not sure it is in this case. You see, this is basically a Sherlock Holmes retelling.

It's not even just an inspired retelling but it takes heavily from the original books, up to certain scenes at the start of them meeting. While the characters aren't called Sherlock and Watson, it's Crow and Doyle, most of the other characters keep their original names. Within 400 pages Addison drives us through quite a bit of cases our original Sherlock dealt with. The author's note mentions this started as a Sherlock fanfic. It kind of shows.

I am certainly not adverse to a sherlock retelling at all but as a whole I felt this book got stale very quickly when it comes to the plot. We go through the cases while the bigger plot is meant to be that of Jack the Ripper. But it never feels like we are moving towards something.

The most appealing things about the whole book is the world in itself. Inhabited by angels, werewolves, hellhounds, vampires and more. It is an interesting setting as a whole. And I wish, I so wish that more had been done with it in the cases, in the overall portion of the world.

As for the characters. Crow was meant as Sherlock but a much kinder and more approachable version. Where as Doyle, meant as Watson, was quite frankly a bit of a grump at times. Not necessarily a bad thing. Crow is asexual as an angel and apparently angels are initially female though Crow is mostly seen as male now. Doyle is actually a woman, dressed as a man. I would almost say Doyle is trans but at the same time they mention that they don't quite feel male or female.

Addison's writing is solid and when it comes to the character interactions there are certainly a few gems in there. But I couldn't quite get past the whole of the setting and how little was done with it in the end.

Well this was an intriguing idea as the juxtaposition of an Angel for the famous detective Sherlock Holmes had me very eager to read this. I've not read anything by this author before so wasn't sure what to expect but the ever so slightly maniacal side of Holmes was certainly present in the titular Crow . Doyle is the representation of Watson here and I loved that he's written as a gentleman who has manners and indeed a strong sense of right and wrong. As it's a homage to Conan Doyle of course there is Moriarty and numerous nods and references to stories loved by many.
I don't think this book will suit everyone and if honest did feel at times that it dragged . I couldn't help but compare it in my mind to the recent BBC Sherlock series because that bore a frantic energy and pace . All in all this was an interesting idea and certainly a very unique take on what is fiction and how to merge it with fact.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

Friends. Countrymen. This is not the book you expected based on the amazing synopsis. I mean, the synopsis does say that, but fair warning. This is purely and simply, Sherlock wing-fic (fanfic but give a character wings). I was just as shocked as so many other reviewers seemed to be, but I wasn’t entirely disappointed. It was fun and catered to my love for the mystery solving, brilliant Sherlock Holmes and the ever loyal John Watson.

To be clear, the characters are not called Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, but rather Crow and J.H. Doyle. Crow is an unusual sort of angel who doesn’t have a building to be guardian to the way the rest of his brethren do. He’s an anomaly and has managed to bend the rules and declares himself the Angel of London. J.H. Doyle (or Dr. Doyle) has rather traditionally been injured during the war in Afghanistan and his injuries have resulted in his return to London where he can’t afford a flat by himself. If you’re at all familiar with the BBC show or the books you’ll guess what happens next. They become fast friends, solve crimes, and have dangerous adventures but this time the author throws in a bunch of supernatural stuff and Jack the Ripper.

Crow and Doyle, while original in some aspects, are comfortingly familiar characters. The cases themselves are thematically on point with the stories as well, though they certainly have minor differences. It was similar enough that I could guess who the culprit would be at each turn.

While I greatly enjoyed this book, I struggle to rate it because it’s literally Sherlock with supernatural bits and the supernatural parts themselves weren’t all that in depth. The whole angel thing for one could have been so much more detailed! Angels guard a building. If the building is destroyed, the angel usually becomes Nameless and they sort of float about in a drone type state until further notice. The Named angels can’t leave their buildings, but protect them and usually the inhabitants. Crow has managed to avoid this, though I won’t spoil how. Angels can Fall and become evil, but this is merely glossed over. So many of the potentially amazing supernatural elements were just vague.

This was tremendously fun, but it certainly wasn’t what I expected from Katherine Arden’s latest book. Admittedly, I would hate to have to live up to reader’s expectations following her much loved and acclaimed The Goblin Emperor. If you like Sherlock and/or re-tellings of Doyle’s stories then you’ll more than likely enjoy this as well. Do note that Crow (our Sherlock) doesn’t so much do amazing deduction as what seem to be brilliant guesses. I think this is in part due to Dr. Doyle being the main POV.

If you are a fan of historical fiction and alternative history writing this story is definitely for you. Also, if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes then this story is 100% even more for you.

Now, before moving into the story itself there are a few things I wanted to clear up as I found them out for myself as I finished this novel. First, the author Katherine Addison is the same person as the author Sarah Monette. It appears that for different genres and topics Monette has applied her pen name Addison, so keep that fun fact for yourself if you want to read more of her writing. Second, and this is direct from the author herself in the Author’s Note – The Angel of the Crows began as a Sherlock wingfic fanfiction.

Now, to talk about this wonderful book itself. I am, admittedly, a fan of all things Sherlock Holmes so to see a reimagining of the story with different characters (Crow being Sherlock and Doyle being Watson) was fun for me. The explanation for why the characters are the way they are fits so well that I found myself smiling wide. Crow, being an angel whose domain is all of London, thus explaining his heightened senses and sometimes odd behavior as Sherlock, is wonderful in his odd ways. Doyle, much like Watson, is suffering from a leg injury and from having been in the war however his injury is of a spectral nature as he was attacked by what is known as a Fallen angel i.e. one that is now filled with dark, nefarious energy and power.

Throughout this book we cover the well-known Sherlock Holmes stories of “A Study in Scarlet,” “The Sign of the Four,” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” but Addison didn’t stop there and also had our heroes join the hunt for Jack the Ripper.

Honestly while I wish some lesser-known Sherlock tales had been picked or that things had been reworked a bit more to make them feel new or extremely different I did enjoy the way that Addison connected the dots between these classic stories and our newly reimagined characters.

If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, alternative history or the idea of these characters being redone in a way that breathes new life back into these classics I would definitely suggest you pick up this book. While it wasn’t life altering it was a quite enjoyable read and I was impressed with Addison’s style. I may be picking up her other works soon.

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison has so much potential to be a great new historical fantasy Sherlock Holmes retelling that incorporates Jack the Ripper. Unfortunately, it ended up falling flat for me. Perhaps my expectations were way to high, but I was bored by this. There's a lot of unique ideas here that are skipped over and not developed. In the end, it doesn't stand out from the crowd and is far too forgettable. I'm so disappointed.

Thank you for allowing me to preview this title. It just wasn't my cup of tea. I tried a few times to read it and just couldn't get past the 20% mark. The story was moving too slow for me and I would get distracted until I finally put it down. Best wishes for much success.

Interesting twist on Sherlock Holmes. I enjoyed some parts, but I found the paranormal world a little difficult to get into.

The Angel of the Crows is the second* novel from Katherine Addison, the author of the Hugo and Nebula award nominated The Goblin Emperor. The Goblin Emperor was one of the biggest critical darlings (and fan enjoyed) books in the last few years, and even if I didn't quite love it as much as the general consensus, it was a masterpiece of setting and character-building. So people have been waiting for Addison's next novel for some time and finally with The Angel of the Crows, we have it. To add to the reasons this book is highly anticipated, it's another fantasy adaptation of Holmes and Watson, and seeing Addison put a spin on that is highly appealing.

*Addison is actually the pen name for author Sarah Monette, but this is the second novel for this pen name.

And The Angel of the Crows mostly delivers. Once again Addison pulls of a fantastic setting - a fantasy version of London filled with Angels, Vampires, Werewolves, and more - and main characters that are a hell of a different spin on classical archetypes. This Holmes is an Angel - albeit one who shouldn't be able to exist and is not trusted as a result - and our Watson is carrying very different secrets and traumas (which I'm not going to spoil here) than the original. These changes, plus the fantastic setting, draw you in and make this a hard book to put down (I literally finished this at 2 in the morning.) On the other hand, despite all the above, the book is at the same time often somehow also a by the numbers adaptation of a number of classic Holmes stories which will be of less interest to anyone with major familiarity with those stories.
--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------

Dr. J.H. Doyle never had any intention of returning to London, but Doyle's tour in Afghanistan was cut short when Doyle was injured by a Fallen and barely survived due to an experimental treatment. Doyle has nowhere to stay but a chance acquaintance introduces Doyle to a solution: an Angel named Crow is looking for a roommate for a flat on Baker Street. Crow is like no angel Doyle has ever met - Crow clearly isn't fallen, but he's not tied to any specific location like every other non-nameless angel Doyle has met....and Crow clearly has a name. Even worse, Crow probably can sense Doyle's own dangerous secrets.

But Doyle can't help but be intrigued by Crow's brilliant deductions from sharp observation and even more so by Crow's unusual relationship with Scotland Yard. Soon Doyle is accompanying Crow on cases, and finding out how strange murders and mysteries in London and its surrounding area can truly be. With Doyle's Assistance, they take on these cases - which feature all manners of supernatural creatures: such as vampires, hemophages, werewolves, hellhounds, etc. Many such creatures live ordinary legal lives in London - but they don' make solving these mysteries any less dangerous.

But then there's London's most dangerous killer - the unknown assailant who has been cutting up prostitutes and leaving no clues in the process.....can Crow and Doyle stop him before his murder spree continues? Or will all of London remain in utter fear forever?

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The Angel of the Crows is a Sherlock Holmes adaptation, with the angel Crow as our version of Holmes and Dr. Doyle standing in for Dr. Watson. It's not particularly subtle about that, with Doyle's backstory of being injured in Afghanistan being lifted straight from Watson's for example, but what makes this novel different than just a straight adaptation is the change in setting. This is a fantasy version of London where supernatural creatures are regular beings, although those who are them are supposed to register their status with the law. So you have angels - both the thinking type who are tied to a location and a mindless unthinking type who go everywhere without personality - fallen angels, hellhounds, vampires, hemophages, werewolves, etc. It's a really well done fantasy setting, which we see through Doyle's eyes throughout (again just like in classic Holmes stories told by Watson) that makes fresh something which may otherwise feel old hat and done before.

That said, despite the above, this is sometimes a really paint by numbers adaptation of Holmes and Watson, with each part of the book covering for the most part - with a few exceptions - a classic story from the original works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Addison changes some motivations, adds some supernatural elements to most of the stories, and deals with the problematic nature of a few of the stories (a convenient race flip helps one of these), but the names of all the players in each story remain the same, as do the general particulars. As some of these stories are longer than others, this works better sometimes than others - the longer stories have more room for interesting changes, but shorter stories, especially a few that close out the book, often feel kind of pointless and wasted: especially if you have any familiarity with the original stories....as the whodunit nature of them is basically eliminated by the fact that the culprits all remain exactly the same. The adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is a good example of this, as the story pretty much cuts out the mystery altogether by having it solved immediately, making me wonder why on earth it was included as such. Moreover, even the book's only non-Holmesian mystery, based upon the killings of Jack the Ripper, isn't resolved in a fashion that satisfies anyone with a craving for mystery, and functions more as a window dressing of the setting more than anything. Really the stories here no longer function as mysteries intended to puzzle the reader but instead as setting pieces for our characters to grow and develop.

And as a result, The Angel of the Crows really works, thanks to its tremendous main duo - its adaptation of Sherlock (as Crow) and Watson (as Doyle). It's become classic in mainstream adaptations of Holmes to adapt the man as an utter jerk, with some adaptations going so far as to have him deliberately being an asshole to others while others simply make it a result of him lacking any social awareness or dignity. Here, that's very toned down and explained: Crow (Holmes) is literally an angel, obviously most interested in doing good, and never wanting to be a jerk.....he just has little awareness of human social dignities, emotions and functions outside of what he can observe, which as a non-human is obviously incomplete and thus requires a lot of aid from Doyle. That's added to by the strange circumstances for which Crow exists as an Angel, which is fascinatingly revealed throughout.

And then there's Doyle, who is honestly perhaps more of the primary character here as the Watson surrogate than Crow is as the Holmes one. Doyle is a tremendous lead narrator, a character with secrets that intrigue and yet feel natural and explicable when finally revealed - despite Doyle's first person narration, it never feels conspicuous or ludicrous when these secrets come out that they weren't first in Doyle's own internal monologue. These secrets and changes to the Watson background make Doyle a fresh and really interesting character, as Doyle grows to accept who Doyle has become, and grows a relationship with Crow. In the end of it all, even if the mysteries themselves were kind of a bummer, I really desperately wanted to see more of what would happen to both Doyle and Crow.

I'm tiptoeing around character spoilers throughout this review, not even giving them up in ROT13, because this book is done so well in using them to grow the characters like Doyle, and I wouldn't want to possibly ruin anything for any reader. And I should add that the book does do interesting things confronting issues of race and gender throughout, even with the limited number of women in the classic Holmes stories, the most notable of whom actually does not appear in this novel. The result is overall a tremendous follow up to The Goblin Emperor, featuring a fascinating setting in this fantasy version of London, and two tremendous characters in Crow and Doyle.

This novel ends in a way that is satisfying on its own, but honestly makes me desperate for more, and if more does come in this world, I'll be there immediately.

Unfortunately, I am packing it in on The Angel of Crows. I just cannot get into this book and I was expecting something different than just a fantastical retelling of Sherlock Holmes.

Since I was unable to complete this book, I will not be leaving a review on any retail sites as I am unable to provide a full and fair assessment.

Thank you to MacMillian-Tor/Forge for my advanced reading copy via NetGalley.

Though I feel like it lacked in plot and world-building, The Angel of the Crows is entertaining enough to get you invested.
~
My thoughts on The Angel of the Crows

The Angel of the Crows is a good read! Did it blow me away as I hoped it would? No. Was it entertaining? Definitely! Did I get invested with the characters? Oh, yes.

As a whole, the story was entertaining. But I’m going to be honest and say that it has no real or main plot. Maybe the part about Jack the Ripper was supposed to be the bigger picture in the story, but it felt disjointed. It also wasn’t fleshed out for me (or maybe I was just looking for closure since Jack the Ripper was never caught in real life and I wanted to see how the author will go about it). The whole book is a series of different cases taken by Doyle and Crow, and we see them meet various people and creatures and solve one problem after another. For me, this allowed the book to be character-focused. It’s not exactly character-driven per se (since there were various sub-plots that moved the story forward), but as a reader, I was able to focus on the characters and get to know them. I adored Doyle and Crow as individual characters, and I also loved their tandem! (I also keep seeing gay subtext between, but that could just be me.)

As for the world-building, oh how I craved for it. It was good, but I wanted more! Details about the other creatures are vague and lacking. There was enough background about angels, but as for the others, no.

To my surprise, there’s also LGBTQ+ rep in The Angel of the Crows. (Watch out for spoilers!) Doyle was assigned female at birth, and said he’s neither a man or a woman in the later part of the book (I presume this is in regards to his gender identity). Crow is also an asexual being, considering he is an angel and angels feel no sexual attractions. It was also stated that angels can be both male and female. Though it was nice to see these representations, I feel like the author could have expounded more on it.

The author also said in the Author’s Note, that this story began as a Sherlock wingfic. Now, I’m not a fan of Sherlock Holmes (because I’ve never read the book, watched the movies, or anything), but I am very familiar with fanfics (as a fanfic reader myself!) and it was another pleasant surprise for me! Wingfics are fanfictions where characters (usually human) are reimagined with wings. I thought it was great that the author managed to create this story from what was once a fanfic. On the other hand, this also made me understand others’ sentiments about this book being a Sherlock “retelling”.

Overall, The Angel of the Crows is wonderful read. And if you feel like this book will suck you in, please read it!

So this book is Sherlock Holmes fanfic - no more, no less. I happen to appreciate fanfic, so I was perfectly happy about that, but it bears mentioning. There are many iterations of Sherlock Holmes, and this is fanfic of the BBC show <i>Sherlock</i> more than anything else. Specifically, this is "wingfic," which is fanfic where one of the characters has wings. (I learned of the existence of wingfic as a thing from the author's note at the end.)

This is in a re-imagined Victorian London filled with the supernatural. Holmes, known here as Crow, is an angel - the self-appointed Angel of London. Watson - here known as Doyle - is recently returned from Afghanistan, having suffered a wound inflicted by one of the Fallen. Moriarty, when we meet him, is a vampire. What we get is a series of familiar vignettes, re-imagined to incorporate the supernatural to one degree or another. And there's an overall arc of Crow trying to figure out the identity of Jack the Ripper, with lots of actual historical information worked in.

As is the case in all the best Holmes stories, the heart of this is the relationship between Sherlock/Crow and Watson/Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is usually presented as not-quite-right, in whatever version - in this case it's a product of Crow's not being human and not understanding a lot of what humans find embarrassing. It works.

Sherlock/Crow and Watson/Doyle both have some pretty big character development moments, which ... don't all work equally well to me. The revelation that <spoiler>Doyle was turned into a hellhound by his wound</spoiler> is a nice one, though Addison never really explained to my satisfaction why <spoiler>keeping it secret was so important. Registering doesn't seem like *that* big of a deal</spoiler>. The fact that <spoiler>Doyle and Crow are both women was very interesting in Doyle's case, but with Crow it didn't really seem to go anywhere</spoiler>. (Sorry for the spoiler tags - I usually try hard to avoid them in reviews - but I wanted to address that and didn't really see a way to do it without saying it outright.)

Overall, I found this to be disappointing for entirely unfair reasons. If I'd read this as a book by a new author, I'd say it was great, well-written, and imaginative. But having absolutely loved *The Goblin Emperor*, I kept hoping to find myself touched in a comparable way. It never happened, I'm sorry to say. "Not as good as <i>The Goblin Emperor</i>" isn't really a criticism, and this was excellent by objective standards.

I loved this book! It was very readable and just sucked me in from the beginning. I loved the way Addison took the familiar story of Sherlock Holmes and wove a tale both familiar and completely new out of it. The supernatural elements were incredibly well done and believable and I loved how they tied in to the original stories. Crow and Doyle were protagonists that I could immediately root for, and all of the side characters were fleshed out nicely as well.

I was left wishing it was longer and that there were more books about Crow and Doyle because I loved the way they fit so nicely together, and I would love more backstory on Crow and explanation of the worldbuilding around the angels.

There was one moment that jarred me out of the story, and that was the abrupt shift to the Hound of the Baskervilles section. It almost felt like there were pages missing there. But otherwise just a really excellent story all around. The cover is also bold and attractive and fits the story.

Also it made me immediately buy the Goblin Emperor and read it, which should say a lot about how much I enjoyed it. :-)

I will post a review on amazon and b&n on the release date.

Reviewed by my co-blogger, Celeste, on Novel Notions

I received a copy of this book from the publisher (Tor) and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Angel of the Crows is basically Sherlock fan-fiction. I can’t even say it’s thinly veiled, because it isn’t veiled at all. And I am completely okay with that.

“I may be on the side of the angels, but don’t think for a second that I am one of them.”
– BBC’s Sherlock

There were a couple of pretty big twists here and there, but for the most part this book is a collection of faithful retellings of some of Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes stories. A Study in Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Sign of Four, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, and more are covered in this collection. The still unsolved case of Jack the Ripper, which has been included or alluded to in many secondary works about Holmes written by other authors, is the thread which ties all of these separate cases into one cohesive narrative. But what sets this book apart from other Sherlockian stories outside of Doyle’s original canon is the author’s truly fascinating addition of the supernatural. This is not mere whiffs of supernatural in and around certain cases. Addison created a world in which the supernatural runs rampant and is accepted as reality but civilization at large.

“You can not keep faith with the faithless.”

Where the supernatural is seen most interestingly is in the Sherlock and Watson characters. Crow, the Sherlock character in this story, is an angel. Kind of. He doesn’t have his own habitation, which is what gives angels their identity. He isn’t one of the Nameless, because he managed to wrest an identity almost out of thin air. And he isn’t one of the Fallen, who are basically angels who lost their habitations and went crazy. Crow is something that no one can define, and it freaks everyone the heck out. Everyone, that is, except for Dr. J.H. Doyle, the Watson character in this tale. After being wounded in the war in Afghanistan, Doyle finds himself sharing a flat with Crow at 221B Baker Street. Addison barely deviated from the original meeting of the two, which I appreciated. From there they embark on the adventures that have become so well known over the past century, with just enough differences to keep things interesting.

“Shepherds watch over their flocks. And angels watch over shepherds.”

The Angel of the Crows is very much rooted in the Victorian London of Doyle’s original canon. Addison stays incredibly true to the stories that provided her inspiration. But what kept this book from feeling like a stale rehashing, besides the supernatural elements, were all of the references to the BBC series that Addison included. Some of the dialogue was word for word from the show. I’ve read and loved every Sherlock story Doyle penned, but the reason behind that love is my adoration for the BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I have watched each and every episode multiple times; the first six episodes I’ve watched half a dozen times at least. It’s my sentimental favorite series ever. When Addison opened the book with a quote from the show, I was already won over. But every time she gave the series even the slightest of nods in the narrative it made me giddy. I mean, she gave Crow wings with the same level of moodiness and sass as Sherlock’s coat gave him in the show. The biggest change was Crow’s complete innocence and joy over the smallest things. Since these personality traits make him very believable as an angel, so I’m totally in favor of them. And I really don’t think they’re too far off from Sherlock’s portrayal in the show.

“Your real name has power.”

If you’re a fan of the original Doyle canon, this is a fun replay of some of its greatest hits, so to speak. Does it do anything truly new? No. The core of the stories are exactly the same. But the trappings are a lot of fun. And if you’re as obsessed with BBC’s Sherlock as I am, The Angel of the Crows is going to make you really happy. It’s as light and sweet and frothy as any plot relying on murder can get.

All quotes above were taken from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon publication.

U.S. Release date: June 23, 2020
U.K. Release date: September 17, 2020

Fair warning - there’s no way to review this one without at least minor spoilers so read on only if you’re okay with that!

Going into The Angel of the Crows, I had absolutely no idea what to expect because the blurb was so vague. But I knew it would was urban fantasy so I was sold. Luckily, The Angel of the Crows turned out to be a delightfully updated version of Sherlock Holmes set in an urban fantasy world. Addison captured the characters so perfectly but still managed to make them feel new. And the world!! I could have read about it all day.

This one read more like a short story collection (which holds true to the original). But I frequently found myself wishing that Addison would stretch beyond the original stories. The parts where she did were brilliant but the majority of the book stuck very closely to the source material. So, depending on how familiar you are with Holmes, you’ll know how each part ends. Although the author’s note states that this book began as a wingfic (a subtype of fan fiction), I think the author could have really delved into this rich and fascinating world to create something special.

As it is, The Angel of the Crows is one of best Holmes retellings that I’ve read. I’d just recommend knowing what you’re getting into before you start reading! And I really hope that the author writes a sequel with an entirely original plot because I loved both her take on Watson and Holmes and her urban fantasy world.

*Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.