A review by skycrane
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

5.0

I didn't know going into this that it was an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, but that was revealed very early on. Even if the epigraphs don't tip you off, the story begins in almost exactly the same manner as A Study in Scarlet. An army doctor comes home wounded from the war in Afghanistan, and is introduced to a very peculiar person in need of a flatmate to split the rent. The Angel of the Crows is the best Holmes adaptation I've ever read or seen, and is in my opinion even better than the originals. I've read most of Doyle's stories, and though I don't remember the details of all of them, I remember enough to see that Katherine Addison must be deeply familiar with (and probably very fond of) the sources she's drawing from.

What is really excellent about this book is the way the author makes the stories her own. J. H. Doyle is not John Watson, and Crow is not Sherlock Holmes. This London is different than our London. Discovering and exploring these differences made reading this book a joy.