4.5⭐️

“People like you keep me alive. Without you, I would only be a figure pressed between yellowed pages. I owe you my life.”

CW: Suicidal thoughts, homophobia, hate crimes, terminal illness, addiction

This book is so many things wrapped into one. It’s a book for Holmes lovers, it’s a romance, it’s a ghost story, its heavy, and it’s about becoming your true self. The characters were rich and well developed. The plot was easy to follow while also being surprising and intriguing. I truly enjoyed reading this.

We meet Andrew during a mid-life crisis, when absolutely everything is going wrong. But Sherlock Holmes shows up to help him solve the case of himself.

I enjoyed that even the side characters were well developed. Despite the book only being from Andrews pov, you still get a really strong sense of all the cast. I really enjoyed the plot too: the mystery of the note, the romance subplot, and everything that Andrew deals with. If you’re wondering, the romance came into play heavily about 40% in.

I did find the dialogue hard to follow at times, it felt like I just didn’t understand the discussion, but for most of the novel this wasn’t an issue.

Overall, if you enjoy Speculative Fiction, coming of age, a mid-life crisis, or romance sub-plots, I think you should give this book a try!

Thank you to NetGalley, Improbable Press, and Yvonne Knop for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Got this book from NetGalley, and I've enjoyed reading it. Whilst it did take me a few pages to get into the story, I eventually understood Dandy Andy and the world he hides himself in.

The story was easy to follow, the characters believable and fun to read about. Will definitely be keeping an eye out on the future released by this author.

Wow, this book was AMAZING! I love everything Sherlock Holmes, and after the most recent BBC series, I've come to expect a level of sass, indulgence and humor from Sherlock Holmes books and stories and this book ABSOLUTELY delivered! (Which is quite funny, because the main character hates this adaption but I think he and the BBC Sherlock would probably get along in an enemies to lovers sort of way!)

The main character is a grumpy professor whose attitude could be exhausting and annoying if written incorrectly instead comes off as witty, engaging and had me frantically turning pages to try and get more and more from him. Then our little sunshine love interest is just such a ray of light in the story. I read this entire book in one night because I just couldn't put it down.

Then there was the LGBTQ+ rep throughout the book and many of the scenes of self-discovery, coming out and general acceptance were so beautiful I teared up. The book was educational without being preachy, and I just can't recommend it enough!

Big thank you to Yvonne Knop and Netgalley for the ARC.