The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Crusader's Curse

by Stuart Douglas

A new novel from the author of acclaimed Sherlock Holmes patisches  The Albino's Treasure ,  The Counterfeit Detective  and  The Improbable Prisoner



     The last Lord Thorpe, reclusive owner of Thorpe Manor, has died. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are invited to the auction at which the estate will be sold off, in hopes Holmes can uncover the whereabouts of the missing De Trop Diamond, a jewel-encrusted gemstone brought back from the Crusades by an earlier member of the Thorpe dynasty - and the source of a legendary curse.

from TI 9781789091588 

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction

284 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2020

About the author

Author of The Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries.

Reviews

[Auntie Terror · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I enjoyed how close to the originals the narrative tone and style was. The plot itself felt a little more "modern".

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love The Further Adventures series and this one didn't disappoint. It's a bit slow at the beginning with a lot of character build up before the crime is committed. With complex plot twists that keep you guessing until the big reveal.

[WhatShouldIRead · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part I enjoyed reading this new Sherlock Holmes adventure. I felt the author really captured the essence of Holmes and Watson pretty well. The atmosphere of the manor house with the ongoing snow storm really added to the gothic feel of the story.

However, there were a few things I did not like, or rather found hard to believe. First, there is a cast of characters in this book and often times I'd forget who was who. Next, one of the clues was 'saved' then nothing else was done with it as far as I can remember. And finally, when it was explained where the missing stone was just suspended my belief big time. Felt almost like it was tacked on at the end of the story.

But, as I mentioned, I did enjoy this book for the most part and it is a fairly quick read.

[Sam Hiatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.49 rounded down

Fun read, classic Sherlock Holmes

[David Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, including many of those written by Stuart Douglas. However, I didn't think this novel was one of his better efforts to carry on the tradition of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The main reason I gave this pastiche only three stars involves the plot. While I never go into plot specifics in these reviews to avoid any spoilers, I will say that I thought that this was not one of Douglas' better story lines.

Specifically, the first third of the novel dragged, with little to no action. And while I don't mind some exposition at the beginning of a book, it went on for too long in this one.

The action picked up in the middle third of the book, and I began to get drawn in. But the final third of the novel deteriorated into a series of complex plot twists and character reveals that I found overly complicated and unnecessary. In the end, the novel reminded me of a locomotive that starts out very slowly, settles into a steady rhythm - but then speeds up to the point where it is out of control and ultimately crashes spectacularly.

Finally, I don't mind a few errors in a book - even the greatest editor is human and can miss some things. But this book contained a number of significant errors that even a novice editor should have caught, including Holmes mentioning the death of a character that hadn't been discovered dead yet! How does that happen?

In the end, I'm glad I read this latest effort by Mr. Douglas. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the most hardcore Sherlockian hell bent on reading all the pastiches he or she can find. It wasn't one of the worst I've ever read, but neither was it one of the best.

[Ade Couper · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, one of the hardest things to do when writing a new Sherlock Holmes story is to get Watson right- & this is one of the things that Stuart Douglas has done here.

This novel also works well at taking Holmes out of his traditional area, and transposing him & Watson into an Agatha Christie style country house mystery, complete with many of the traditional tropes of the genre- members of the upper class, innkeepers from the "we don't have strangers here sir" school, a pig-headed local policeman.....

The only reason I didn't finish this in 1 day was I needed to get some sleep! Worthy of your attention.

[Sarah Gallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a massive Sherlock Holmes fab. I love the original books, the retelling and the additional novels such as this one. The reason however I could not give the author 5 stars was not his interpretation of the characters but the mystery itself. It was too convoluted and I failed to understand the motivations of the the killer. It was however a fun Sherlock Holmes read.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this one, particularly for the way Holmes and Watson were written, but I had to take one star off the rating for the slow start of the book and for one fatal editing mistake. Holmes somehow knew someone had died before the actual death had taken place? How could someone miss something this obviously wrong with the book in editing? Otherwise great novel.

[🌹📚Beth🐅🍕 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

[MJM33 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good novel for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson fans. Enough twists and turns to keep you guessing throughout the read.

[Lyle Blosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely has the feel of a classic Conan Doyle tale; very enjoyable.

[Calvin Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid 3.5

Not the top in the 'Further Adventures' collection, but a worthy addition :)

[Fraser Merricks · Rating 4 out of 5]

History and Sherlock Holmes combined is the perfect combination for fans that share the same tastes in literature.

[Ramón Peña · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent mystery, this pastiche skims on atmosphere and jumps straight to plot. In fact, while the author does get the characters to sound like Holmes and Watson, the plot itself is a multiple suspects whodunnit more reminiscent of Agatha Christie than Doyle. This is not necesarily bad, though.

What it is bad are a couple of editing mistakes in the later part of the book. In p. 244 Holmes laments the death of a character. However, this character death is not actually discovered until the next chapter... and it is not a clever deduction by Holmes, it simply like seems some dialogue was changed around during a rewrite and this piece of information wasn't caught, which is first disconcerting when you read it ("What! Did I miss something?"), then annoying when you realize what must have happened. Also, relatively minor compared to that, in p. 264 a letter is read and, as it is usual in these cases, the text box is indented and in itallics. However, after the single paragraph that is supposed to be the letter, both indentation and italization continues for the two following dialogue lines of Holmes and Watson reacting to it.

Of course I cannot ask to the fellows at Titan Books to correct my print copy, but I suggest that they fix the ebook versions and that they are more careful in the future with these kind of things. Editors are there for a reason and mistakes like these can ruin the enjoyment of reading a perfectly good story.

[P.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed SH books by Mr. Douglas for various reasons. Firstly, his writing style is in a series of short chapters which helps when I have to put the book up and down often. Secondly, I appreciate the way his dialogue reflects the Holmes/Watson relationship as friends and comrades. Lastly, his tales lead the reader through a zig-zag plot that always comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

Unfortunately, this book has to be demoted one-star because of poor editing, which I found extremely surprising for a Titan Books publication.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent

[Bella · Rating 1 out of 5]

I

[D. Wickles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't get enough of Sherlock Holmes!

[noot · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the plot but it got a little confusing with the character names, i sometimes confused characters with one another and it got kind of overwhelming because of that, but i enjoyed it

[J Grimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this easy read, It was however a bit of a repeat of the Moonstone by Willkie Collins and Sherlock does not I feel star.

[Eric Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid Holmes mystery from Douglas. Holmes tries to find a missing jewel and paintings before the ancestral home is sold.