MeltingPenguins’s Reviews > Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes > Status Update

A Matter of Light:
0/5 and DNFed the moment it became clear this was a 'Holmes hates women until taught better by one who also qualifies as a 'not like other girls and better than everyone else" type character. She's also the author's OC and... This is already scoring so high on the bad book bingo. no thank you.

Magic of Africa: 1-1.5/5. Not bad but still bland. Supernatural aspect feels very tagged on, and the story is definitely losing some points to the framing aspect promising this to be Holmes' strangest case. Look, if you want to get your reader hyped like that, sit your butt down and deliver.

The Lizard Lady of Pemberton Grange:
0/5 for this one because Good Heavens does it not know what it wants to be. The only 'spooky' aspect does not even really come into play, the solution is a plain old asspull that reveals facts the reader didn't even get a glimpse at prior. The prose is equally uneven. Just bad. At least we didn't actually get any lizard people, it was bad enough that that undertone's present.

How I hate, hate *hate* stories that try to be gothic/spooky by being edgy, gritty and cynical. This one, Dr Sacker and Mr Hope, rips off Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (letting Jekyll appear too) and is entirely to cynical and aloof in its ending. If I want to read schlock like that I turn to modern crimefiction, not to Sherlock Holmes pastiches.0/5

I skipped the 3rd story, Father of the Man. Competently written, but something about it just failed to pique my interest. Thus no rating for this one.

The Spirit of Death: 2.5/5 A good start, but it felt it could have been longer, maybe throwing in a red herring or two. Still solid.

First Story (The Cuckoo's Hour) was a delight. Spooky gothic goodness with a good mix of the grotesque and wordly. 5/5