Golem's Shadow: The Fall of Sherlock Holmes

by Petr Macek

Reichenbach was not his deepest fall…. Autumn 1903 has not been kind to Sherlock Holmes. Irene Adler, his platonic love, is dead, and the detective has again fallen into the clutches of cocaine. Dr Watson hopes that the distraction of a marriage fraud case can help pull his friend out of his depression. But it soon becomes clear that behind the apparently banal crime lurks something much more sinister, something that will take Holmes and Watson to faraway Bohemia, where they must face an unimaginably terrible enemy. A corpse has been discovered on the grave of Rabbi Loew and Prague's Jews are whispering about the Golem...

Genres: Mystery

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 2015

Reviews

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Return of the Golem of Prague?

My sincere thanks go out to Steve and Timi at MX Publications for my review copy of this book. You guys make my day brighter…

Irene Adler has died and Holmes returned to dependence on his cocaine addiction. It has taken Watson several weeks to bring Holmes back from the living death that is drug addiction. The good Doctor knows that what Holmes needs most is a case, something to break the ennui that sends him scrambling for the needle.

A jilted bride brings her case to Baker Street. The man she was to marry turns out to be a con man that specializes in marriage frauds. He inserts himself into high society, and then uses that leverage to steal. In chasing him, Holmes and Watson trace him to France where they discover another victim, Countess d’Ambolieau, who now joins them in their search.

The trail leads to Prague, and to a hidden mastermind who has to be behind the con man and his schemes. Then a prostitute is slain in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague. The only witness states that it was the Golem of Jewish legend, the one famously created by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel centuries ago…

The story builds nicely and is well plotted and written. The final reveal was a bit of a shock, but that means the author has succeeded in his effort to conceal the mystery until just the right moment! I will give this excellent work five stars!

Quoth the Raven…

[Anna Bergmark · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are no ingenious steampunk inventions, Holmes isn't married and he does not ask Watson to bring a wooden stake instead of the old army revolver.
(Don't let the Golem bit fool you, forget paranormality.)

So... In that way it's old school. Sherlock is a little more... human, that's all. And that could have worked out just fine if the "mystery" itself hadn't been so weak and unengaging. A total mess really. I suspect not even the author himself found much interest in it. It's all about the last twist, and though unexpected, as a whole the soup is far to thin. (Thinking about it, maybe 3 stars is too generous?)

[Miro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in ilis – časy sa menia a my sa meníme s nimi...

Veľmi príjemná pastiš zo Sherlokovského univerza. Od autora som kedysi čítal v anglickej verzii „Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Cold-Served Revenge“ a zaujalo ma to natoľko, že som sa rozhodol časom získať ďalšie jeho „Šerlokovky“. Tentokrát už v češtine a neľutujem. V tejto knižke vykreslí veľkého detektíva pomerne netradične a pátranie ich zavedie do Stovežatej. Veľmi ma prekvapilo zakomponovanie inšpektora Ledvinu (áno, toho z filmu Adela ještě nevečeřela). Potešila atmosféra, dobové reálie i dej. Možno ten záverečný súboj a aj etuda vo Vltave prišli trošku pritiahnuté za vlasy. Ale inak pre čitateľa, ktorý má rád legendárneho detektíva a jeho spoločníka Watsona, je to hodnotné čítanie. 4/5

[Kati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zajímavá kniha z českého prostředí, která poskytuje možné vysvětlení, proč Holmes zanechal práce detektiva a uchýlil se na venkov a k chovu včel. Bohužel jako většina knih z této řady je plná chyb, až jsem měla pocit, jako by vůbec neprošla redakční úpravou. Škoda.

[Calvin Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the mid way point of this book I would have been hard pressed to rate it more than 2.5, but the ending drew it up to very near a full 4. A bit more early on and it might have flirted with a five.