Folk-Spelled

Immortal Holmes #1

by Forthright .

What if Sherlock Holmes never truly defeated the Baskerville Hound?
What if they’re still embroiled, still vying, still wrestling for control?

Varti Weller’s promising career as a badge ended the day he was cursed by an Olde Childe to only speak in lies. While others from his cohort protect the city, Varti’s consigned to the evidence lockers in the Bastion’s several basements. Until a string of grisly murders bring him face-to-face with a monster and a legend and a job offer.
Because Sherlock Holmes is in fresh need of a new assistant. And the job can be Varti’s, so long as he outdoes every other badge—and a foreign rival with designs on Holmes—by proving that the centuries-old detective isn’t a murderer.

A steampunk mystery. An alternate history.
Cozy suspense with a paranormal twist.

Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Mystery, Audiobook, Urban Fantasy, Steampunk, Paranormal

445 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 11, 2025

About the author

a teller of tales with a fondness for unlikely friendships, wary alliances, unexpected upshots, hard-won trust, diverse cultures, found family, local legends, and folksome things. Author of the Immortal Holmes series, paranormal mysteries with a steampunk aesthetic set in an alternate history & the romantically-inclined Amaranthine Saga, with all of its attendant short stories & serials.



As a reader, this account is where I rate and review manga.

Reviews

[Forthright .]

This series is so much fun to write. Glad to see positive feedback trickling in!

"This gaslit Holmesian steampunk mystery from Forthright (author of the Amaranthine Saga) opens with a scene as cozily inventive as it is tantalizing …. A promising series-starter about a truth-seeking liar, a city cloaked in ancient magic, and a detective who distrusts his own mind.” —BookLife Reviews (Editor’s Pick)

"An immersive read …. the author’s meticulous attention to detail makes the most commonplace scene memorable.” —BlueInk Review

"Forthright immerses the cast in a rich environment with hints of a more familiar world beyond the steam-powered machines and the constant whirring of gears …. This delightful opening installment introduces an eccentric, magical world." —Kirkus Reviews

[Pamela Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful World Building and Characters

I just finished the book a few klicks ago. Were I Weller, I'd be telling you I hated the tale. Thank goodness I don't have his curse and can say I adored every moment of this read. Eleven out of ten!

[Tony Hinde · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel needed more of my concentration than I was able to spare. I listen to audiobooks while working around the house, and driving. With about 100 named characters and events happening frenetically, I struggled to keep up. It didn't help that the revelation about the murderer was underwhelming... no mastermind hiding in the shadows.

For those expecting a novel in the same style as Doyle's originals, you'll be disappointed. If you put those expectation aside, this is a well written, if not outstanding, work of urban high-fantasy.

[Dumbledore11214 · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if Sherlock Holmes never truly defeated the Baskerville Hound?
What if they’re still embroiled, still vying, still wrestling for control?

Varti Weller’s promising career as a badge ended the day he was cursed by an Olde Childe to only speak in lies. While others from his cohort protect the city, Varti’s consigned to the evidence lockers in the Bastion’s several basements. Until a string of grisly murders bring him face-to-face with a monster and a legend and a job offer.
Because Sherlock Holmes is in fresh need of a new assistant. And the job can be Varti’s, so long as he outdoes every other badge—and a foreign rival with designs on Holmes—by proving that the centuries-old detective isn’t a murderer.

A steampunk mystery. An alternate history.

REPOSTED FROM DA. I GOT THE BOOK ON KU.
Review:

Dear Forthright,

I have read the main books in your previous series ( I have not read the interludes ). I loved the first two, enjoyed the rest to a various degrees and certainly was interested when a good friend mentioned that you have had the first book in the new series out.

When I mentioned my first impressions to the same friend who recommended the book I characterized it as engaging but strange. I think my assessment states after I finished the story and I will clarify that by and large I liked the book a lot and really enjoyed several main characters.  Also, the friendship between Varti and Phil felt more like a romance to me ( which is a good thing, but we shall see what will happen in the next book/s).

However, and this is a big however this book is a very good example how the small details in the story can jerk the reader like me out of the story and irritate me to no ends.

See, overall I thought the world building in this story was great.  Newcomb is probably an alternative London where folk people and regular people live side by side after certain event happened in the past.  I am not really sure how timeline can be assigned relative to “our” world. I feel tempted to call it alternate 19 century, BUT ( and this is not a spoiler since blurb mentions it ) Sherlock Holmes in this world had already been alive for quite some time, so I have no idea how we can assign the year when the events are happening.

There are so many interesting details that the world comes alive and quite vivid on the pages and then there is something like calling hours, minutes and seconds completely made up worlds for the reason unknown to the reader and time is being called in front of every chapter and every time I saw it I wanted to throw my kindle against the wall. I am not exaggerating. I don’t care that characters at some point in the book are actually making fun of this ( that they call minutes and seconds these worlds which I refuse to remember how to spell correctly). It does not make the world feel more unique to me, it feels more artificial - as if author sat down and thought what else to add to world building to make it stand out more.  Same thing with calling the days of the week different words .  The world was interesting and fun, I did not think that calling the things that mean exactly same thing in regular English was needed.

And there is Varti our main hero, who was at some point cursed to always lie.  Varti is a policeman, a talented one, but obviously this curse put limitations on his ability to do his job - he cannot work with public, because every word out of his mouth is a lie. Varti is lucky because he has a wonderful best friend (who is also a policeman) with whom Varti shares a flat and both of them learned to deal with the curse, to work around it sometimes with various gestures ( and even that does not always work).  There are also several other friends/ coworkers who know Varti’s misfortune and who learn to disregard Varti’s communication issue and translate what he really wants to say. I thought it was very fascinating to watch how the man who hates to lie tries to work around the curse and I was happy that he at least has some people who like and support his struggles.

I am guessing the reason why Varti was cursed would be revealed in the next books, but also I just want him to be free of it as soon as possible. I thought him a very sympathetic and interesting character.

Several horrible murders happen in Newcomb early in the book and Varti (thanks to Phil) becomes part of the investigation.

I am not going to tell you anything about Sherlock Holmes’s involvement in the storyline, because to touch on any of it would be revealing big spoilers. I will just say that I have read/ seen several homages to Sherlock Holmes and I thought that this one was quite clever and fun.

I was puzzled by the resolution of the mystery though. Not because I disliked it but because I was not sure who was the killer. The author does reveal the killer, I was just not sure that I understood it correctly.

There is no cliffhanger at the end, there is a different murder resolution of which I suspect would last throughout the books.

Grade: B

[Ka · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

Wow, I didn't expect to love this book so much! It was just a really fun trainwreck of genres... steampunk, fantasy, fae, police procedural, buddy cop, Sherlock Holmes fanfic, ghost story, alternate history London... It was just a good time and really interesting. Travis Baldree also did an amazing job reading it. The Irish accent he gave Varti's best buddy Phil made me instantly fall in love with him, and he made all the other characters very distinctive as well, which is impressive, because there are a LOT of characters in this book, and a lot of them have weird names. Since I was listening to the audiobook I just had to give up on ever really knowing some of them (not because they weren't pronounced clearly, they are just unusual).

Now that I think about it, this book had a lot in common with Murder At Spindle Manor. Certainly the feel of the story; in both books, even with their ridiculous mishmash of EVERY TROPE, the story and characters are weirdly serious and compelling. Here, despite the crazy situation the main character finds himself in (he is cursed to always lie, either by voice or gesture), he is a conscientious and sympathetic character. He doesn't realize it, but although he can't really communicate directly with anyone, he still manages to express enough of his personality that he draws other people to him with his intelligence and his fortitude in the face of the curse he's under. Plus, he loves dogs, something I can totally identify with.

SUMMARY AND THOUGHTS ON THE PLOT, FOR MY MEMORY WHEN I READ THE NEXT BOOK:
Wow, where the hell to even begin. Varti Weller, our main character, is a cop who is stuck working in the records department because of the curse he's under, which basically makes it impossible for him to interact properly with anyone who doesn't already know about it. And even then, he can't really communicate properly; he basically can only really answer questions that happen to have simple opposites.

While out jogging, he meets a gigantic hound, which he names Doggerel and takes home with him to the small apartment he lives in with his best friend Phil, who aside from having an adorable Irish accent and red hair, is a really stand-up guy who is ALSO a cop. The two of them became friends in school and have been together ever since, and both are excellent detectives, but Varti is actually the better of the two... unfortunately, because of his curse, he's never been able to work to his full potential.

We eventually find out that this is basically AU London (with a new name). Some event called the Sundering, which happened 500 years ago in the 1800s, obviously introduced magic and fae to the world. The city is ruled by a pair of queens -- one human, and one fae -- and apparently, it has really merged itself culturally with the fae peoples in a way that the rest of the world has not (at least not to this extent, where every other citizen seems to be fae). We learn this detail from a visiting American mage named Enzo, who is baffled by why the people of the city (which he thinks of as London, although they've renamed it) have different words for things like units of time or days of the week, plus their own fun slang that has evolved over time. You get the impression that although they're not really cut off from the rest of the world, they ARE insulated from it (perhaps by being on an island?) and, perhaps because of the unusual integration of the fae people into society, the city has evolved to be a very unique place. The world-building is really creative and detailed, and I loved it.

There are a bunch of extremely gory murders where the victims are literally torn apart; Varti and Phil, being police officers, investigate and meet lots of other characters over time. One of these is Enzo Basker the American mage and his 2 familiars (one a water sprite who can allow Varti to say 4 True Words every day, the other a shadow creature of some sort). Enzo's magic is apparently crazy powerful because he comes from a family of ultra-mages whose whole mission is to work with "Fell Beasts" (a dozen extremely powerful magical monsters who appear to be themed after the Zodiac animals... just one more trope for this book!). Specifically, their family lost track of the Hound centuries ago when it was taken... spoiler, Sherlock Holmes stole it (somehow, for some reason) and now he and it exist in a sort of Jekyll and Hyde werewolf situation. Generally speaking he can suppress it, but sometimes it gets control and then he just has no idea what happened for a few days (unless it allows him to see). Naturally, it turns out that the Hound is actually Varti's gigantic dog. Naturally, Holmes has a very negative impression of the dog monster that steals his body now and then, but Varti is convinced that the Hound is a Good Boy.

For a while, there is some concern that the Hound is actually the monster that's murdering people by ripping them limb from limb, but eventually they determine that while it MAY be a murderer in general, there is definitely some other monster in the city as well. They discover that this monster has the ability to basically push the soul out of the body, which turns the victim into a ghost; even though ghosts are common in this world (as a kind of temporary psychic echo powered for a short time by mischievious fae spirits), ACTUAL persistent ghosts of previously-living souls are incredibly rare. However, whatever is ripping these people's bodies apart (unfortunately, none of them can quite recall the moment of death), it is also capable of forcing the soul out first.

Enzo works with a descendant of Moriarty (who was one of the city's founders, and also a powerful magician???) named Artie to capture this second Fell Beast, which turns out to be the Hare. Why was it murdering people? This is unclear (maybe we'll learn more in a future book?), but it seems like maybe it was searching for a host; none of the people whose bodies it took over were suitable, so each time, it was forced to explode out of them like a chest-burster and look for another body. (Why it needs a body at all is unclear, as it is clearly capable of just running around booting people's souls from their bodies even without one.) Artie is a teenaged genius engineer and mage who specializes in making magical technology, which is apparently powered by imbuing it with souls. (How he obtains the souls is unknown.) He and his friends also run around on magic skateboards doing graffiti art.

Ghosts can only be seen, not heard or felt, so there's no good way to ask the victims complex questions until Artie pulls out one of his inventions, a miniature golem which, by way of magical runes and such, is able to house a spirit (either fae or human) and allow it to interact with the physical world. One of the victims, who was previously a journalist, seems to be very at home in this device. (I only mention it here as I think we'll probably see him again in a later book.)

Then we have Holmes, who is of course brilliant but also extremely bitchy and difficult to work with. Why is he immortal? No idea. Maybe because he became the host of the Hound? Or maybe it's some other magic? Moriarty somehow made himself semi-immortal by stowing his soul in some kind of device that allows Artie to summon him to protect the city, so... who knows? I imagine we'll find out eventually.

Other important characters are Kel (Varti's subordinate at the records office, but also a badass girl cop), Ramage (I might be spelling this wrong, but he is a harpy cleric or something who also runs a restaurant and is a delight), Holmes's majordomo Arthur who has a weird gift for prophecy, Sylvester (a mysterious guy who gives off slightly criminal vibes but seems to know everyone in town and everything about Varti), and of course Durge, a grumpy and extremely competent gorgon assassin who is my favorite. I love him and his snakes. He works for Holmes as well in a sort of bodyguard/enforcer capacity.

Lastly, there is Malcolm, aka Comfrey (Varti's nickname for him), a "unicorn" fae (he was left as a changeling and doesn't know what kind of fae he is, but he does have a horn on his forehead, a long tail, and kind of goaty legs with cloven hooves). Comfrey is a beautiful (from the waist up, anyway) stage performer who often wears a dress and sometimes sleeps with Phil (explicitly defining one's sexuality doesn't seem to be of much interest to anyone in this world). Malcolm is also friends with the 8th murder victim, a fellow fae whose ghost is now accompanying him. This character doesn't do much in this book, but I did get the impression that he will be important later, as Phil, whose hobby is tarot reading, pulls a card which implies that Varti, Comfrey, and Sylvester are all somehow tied together by fate.

Whew! That was a lot and barely scratched the surface of this book, which is just REALLY FULL OF THINGS. But I loved that! Yes, I had to rewind the audiobook and listen to things multiple times. I would guess I re-listened to so many bits trying to grasp all the little details and unusual words that the book took me 50% longer to listen to than its actual running time. Obviously, if I had the time to read the actual text, that would have cut down on my confusion and distraction significantly, but on the other hand, I don't have time for that and also, I wouldn't have gotten to listen to Travis Baldree's awesome voice for Phil, so you know. *shrug*

ANYHOW ON TO THE NEXT BOOK!!! I'm legit excited.

[Victoria Gilder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folk-Spelled immediately grabbed me with its premise, but what surprised me was how much heart it has beneath the clever worldbuilding. I expected a fun alternate-history mystery with Sherlock Holmes, and I certainly got that, but I also found a story about identity, resilience, and learning to make your greatest weakness into your greatest strength.

Varti Weller is such a refreshing protagonist. Being cursed to only speak in lies could have easily become a one-note gimmick, yet it turns into one of the most fascinating character challenges I've read in a long time. Every conversation becomes a puzzle, not only for the people around him but for the reader as well. It made me pay closer attention to every interaction, and I loved trying to decipher the truth hidden beneath his words.

The decision to place Sherlock Holmes into a world of folklore, curses, and steampunk works remarkably well. Instead of simply borrowing a famous detective, the novel imagines what happens when legends refuse to stay finished. The lingering mystery surrounding the Baskerville Hound adds an eerie layer that feels both familiar and completely original.

I also appreciated the balance of tone. The story has plenty of suspense and imaginative fantasy elements, but it never loses its sense of humor or warmth. The cozy atmosphere makes the darker moments land even harder, and the mystery continually kept me guessing without becoming convoluted.

What stayed with me most was the idea that people are often defined by what others think they lack. Varti's curse appears to make him incapable of serving justice, yet it's ultimately his unusual perspective that allows him to see what everyone else misses. That's a wonderfully satisfying message wrapped inside a genuinely entertaining mystery.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful, vividly described world! Forthright has started a new series - Immortal Holmes.

It is an alternate history. Some 500 years ago a Sundering occurred. In England (well, certainly in London), people made peace with the fae (fairies). The fae (including all kinds of magical creatures such as centaurs, gorgons, trolls, etc. etc.) live in peace with ordinary humans.

This is still Sherlock Holmes' 1880s time period. Plenty of steam engines, meaning steampunk is alive and well. Cogs and gears everywhere.

So, this book is an alt history, steampunk, cozy murder mystery with magic! What's not to like!

Plus, the premise of this series is that all those years ago Sherlock Holmes confronted the Hound of the Baskervilles AND THEY ARE STILL LOCKED IN COMBAT!

Our primary protagonist is a policeman. Unfortunately, during graduation from the police academy he was cursed by an old fae to only speak in lies. So, he was put in charge of Files & Evidence where he did not have to deal with the public.

Then the bodies begin to pile up. And they all died gruesomely, apparently from being attacked by a fell beast.

Highly recommended for Forthright fans, alternate history fans, steampunk fans, cozy murder mystery fans, and those who enjoy a paranormal twist as well!

[Anne Hickley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real puzzle on more than a hex of levels

Forthright has taken a departure from the wonderful Amaranthine series to bring as a whole new world where, after ‘the sundering’ in dim and distant history, London was completely rebuilt and re founded as a fortified city which has evolved in its own strange way ever since …but is still a multicultural melting pot of people, humans and otherwise. Our hero is Varti, a brilliant badge (policeman) relegated to the archives because he’s cursed to tell only lies. Working out what he means is a puzzle in itself, and then there’s working out how this brave new world functions …and of course who is going around murdering the good citizens, how they can be stopped and what is an immortal Sherlock Holmes doing there …not to mention the Hound of the Baskervilles. It’s a rollicksome read and, having just finished it, I’m about to read it again!

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a different London, with more magic and mystery, a monster is killing and the badges are rushing around looking for answers.

Why I started this book: Love Forthright's Amaranthine series and was eager to try a new series.

Why I finished it: I spent most of the book gentle discombobulated. Explainations left plenty for the imagination to fill in, and like I was missing a paragraph or two of exposition. And still it was a fun story, and I'm more than willing to continue.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchanting world builder

Forthright is an amazingly gifted world builder, as fans of her Amatanthine books can attest. It is a joy to start a new series with her see how this new world unfolds. It is enchanting to find she is also a fine mystery novelist. While the story of this book is complete, there still remain questions about the larger world. I look forward to the next books in this series!

[Wazz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really god though quite different from other Forthright books

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am going to need to re-read before reviewing properly. I love the characters, as usual for a Forthright book, but I don’t think I got all the nuances of the plot the first time through.

[Louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading this book, loved the world and the characters, and it was a fantastic story and I can't wat to continue on!