
What Child Is This?
A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, Book 5
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Narrated by:
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Simon Darwen
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By:
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Bonnie MacBird
About this listen
It’s the season of peace and goodwill, but a Victorian Christmas is no holiday for the world’s most popular detective in this new book from Bonnie MacBird, author of the bestselling Sherlock Holmes novel Art in the Blood.
It’s Christmastime in London, and Sherlock Holmes takes on two cases. The angelic three-year-old child of a wealthy couple is the target of a vicious kidnapper, and a country aristocrat worries that his handsome, favourite son has mysteriously vanished from his London pied à terre. Holmes and Watson, aided by the colourful Heffie O’Malley, slip slide in the ice to ensure a merry Christmas is had by nearly everybody . . .
©2022 Bonnie MacBird (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
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The world was not prepared for this story, a conspiracy hatched in the highest levels of the British government. A rogue Minister of Defense plans to turn soldiers into blood-thirsty animals—and Holmes and Watson may be among their first victims. The adventure starts when Holmes is warned away from investigating Jack the Ripper’s heinous crimes. Despite Holmes’ well-known skills, he is sidelined. He must content himself with a straightforward case, finding a bolting beau, the result of a simple lovers’ quarrel. But that “romance gone wrong” is really the key to a nasty secret.
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Overall
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It’s the autumn of 1890, and a spate of bombings has hit London. The newspapers are full of fevered speculation about anarchists, antimonarchists and Fenians. But one man suspects an even more sinister hand behind the violence. Sherlock Holmes believes Professor Moriarty is orchestrating a nationwide campaign of terror, but to what end? At the same time, a bizarrely garbed figure has been spotted on the rooftops and in the grimy back alleys of the capital.
-
-
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-
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Overall
-
Performance
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Story
January 1888: Dr. John H. Watson has returned to 221b Baker Street, just weeks after a personal tragedy has left him bereaved and bereft. Feeling like a broken man, his plans and dreams lying in ruin, he slowly tries to make his way forward, with the help of Sherlock Holmes and Mrs. Hudson. Unexpectedly, he finds himself standing in the path of a madman—who suddenly and irrationally blames Watson for his apparent defeat.
-
-
Scratch the Sherlockian Itch
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By: David Marcum
-
The Rediscovered Annals of Sherlock Holmes
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- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1980s and 1990s, the late Terry Golledge wrote 10 Holmes masterful pastiches that perfectly captured Dr. Watson's voice, as well as Holmes’ personality and methods. Mr. Golledge passed away in 1996, before these stories could be published. In early 2022, Terry’s son, Niel Golledge, reached out to Sherlockian editor David Marcum, who was electrified to read such wonderful previously lost tales about the heroes of Baker Street.
-
-
I stayed for the listen, but it wasn’t an easy choice
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By: Terry Golledge
-
Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Sumatran Rat
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-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world was not prepared for this story, a conspiracy hatched in the highest levels of the British government. A rogue Minister of Defense plans to turn soldiers into blood-thirsty animals—and Holmes and Watson may be among their first victims. The adventure starts when Holmes is warned away from investigating Jack the Ripper’s heinous crimes. Despite Holmes’ well-known skills, he is sidelined. He must content himself with a straightforward case, finding a bolting beau, the result of a simple lovers’ quarrel. But that “romance gone wrong” is really the key to a nasty secret.
-
-
Follows the form of Sign of Four
- By Jalex on 05-23-23
By: Joanna Campbell Slan, and others
-
The Cthulhu Casebooks: Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows
- The Cthulhu Casebooks, Book 1
- By: James Lovegrove
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the autumn of 1880, and Dr. John Watson has just returned from Afghanistan. Badly injured and desperate to forget a nightmarish expedition that left him doubting his sanity, Watson is close to destitution when he meets the extraordinary Sherlock Holmes, who is investigating a series of deaths in the Shadwell district of London. Several bodies have been found, the victims appearing to have starved to death over the course of several weeks, and yet they were reported alive and well mere days before.
-
-
Bad fanfiction.
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-
The Return of the Pharaoh
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- By: Nicholas Meyer
- Narrated by: David Robb, Nicholas Meyer
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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-
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In The Adventure of the Jeweled Falcon, Holmes tracks down an ancient priceless statue, but others are looking for it too. In The Case of the Violin Savant, using clues found in the sophisticated musical compositions of a celebrated but mute nine-year-old violin savant, Holmes and Watson attempt to discover where and why the boy and his parents vanished. In The Adventure of Stonehenge in London, Holmes and Watson stumble upon a strange structure on the roof of a mansion in London, and somehow it relates to the missing eighth Earl of Rendlesham.
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An interesting take
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Séamas Duffy’s fourth novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Sixty Steps, follows a similar format to his previously published Holmes collections: a novella together with some shorter stories. The four stories are: “The Tragedy of Langhorne Wyke” (1890); “The Mystery of the Thirteen Bells” (1895); “The Adventure of the Sixty Steps” (1897); and “The Problem of the Coptic Patriarchs” (1898).
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Imperfect but very good collection of Holmes stories
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Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Green Dragon
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in late January and early February of 1891, during the time that Professor Moriarty declares in The Final Problem that Holmes had "incommoded" his plans, Holmes and Watson are visited by two charwomen and retained to clear the name of a drunkard lighthouse keeper who has been arrested and charged with the murder of a German man in Tynemouth, England.
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Better than most
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The Whole Art of Detection
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Internationally best-selling author Lyndsay Faye became enamored with tales of Sherlock Holmes and his esteemed biographer, Dr. John Watson, as a child and later began spinning these quintessential characters into her own works of fiction - from her acclaimed debut novel, Dust and Shadow, which pitted the famous detective against Jack the Ripper, to a series of short stories for the Strand Magazine, whose predecessor published the very first Sherlock Holmes short story in 1891.
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Marvelous!
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Sherlock Holmes
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For all we know, or think we know, about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, what we don’t know is far, far greater. In the duo’s first case, A Study in Scarlet, we learn that Holmes and Watson met on January 1st, 1881, and subsequently moved into an apartment together at 221b Baker Street. Their first case officially began on March 4th of that year, and it is argued that “The Adventure of the Resident Patient” possibly took place in October of 1881, depending on which version of the story you read. But what happened during the rest of 1881? Or all of 1882?
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Lay off the footnotes!
- By Barred from reviewing on 11-23-23
By: Richard Ryan, and others
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A Continuum of Sherlock Holmes Stories
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are no strangers to peculiar cases. Be it the dilemma of an Indian princess on the run, perfectly healthy people dropping dead as divine punishment, being challenged to a duel, a heartbroken and suicidal young man, a beautiful woman claiming to be Mrs. Holmes, a little boy who loves his dog, an old Scottish ghost that traditionally haunts husbands of pregnant women - there is very little they haven't seen (and solved). But, besides regular adventures, there are quite a few questions - Where was Holmes during the Great Hiatus?
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Solid collection with a few misses
- By CR on 12-27-21
By: Jay Ganguly
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The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols
- Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D.
- By: Nicholas Meyer
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
January 1905: Holmes and Watson are summoned by Holmes' brother Mycroft to undertake a clandestine investigation. An agent of the British Secret Service has been found floating in the Thames, carrying a manuscript smuggled into England at the cost of her life. The pages purport to be the minutes of a meeting of a secret group intent on nothing less than taking over the world: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
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Just Kinda Sorta Okay
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By: Nicholas Meyer
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The Papers of Sherlock Holmes: Volume 1
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Spanning events over thirty years, Volume I of The Papers of Sherlock Holmes relates narratives of Holmes and Watson's days in Baker Street, as well as particulars of Holmes's supposed retirement. Follow along as The Master and his Boswell travel from the streets of London to the Kent countryside, to Oxford and Sussex. Written in traditional canonical style, these stories provide fresh details of Holmes's world. Join us as we climb the seventeen steps to the Baker Street sitting room, where Holmes and Watson prepare to begin their next adventure. The game is afoot!
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Overall this is a dud
- By Nancy & Greg on 03-10-21
By: David Marcum
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Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
- The Early Adventures, Volume I
- By: David Marcum, Derrick Belanger, Thomas Burns, and others
- Narrated by: Kevin E. Green
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
There is a persistent and incorrect idea, reinforced by countless film misrepresentations, that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were always staid and dull British chaps of middle years (or older), with Holmes a spry, cranky, and impatient eccentric, and Watson a white-haired and portly Boobus Brittanicus, a la Nigel Bruce. Students of the true and Canonical Sherlock Holmes know this to be a falsehood.
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A great listen
- By Chris S. on 01-02-22
By: David Marcum, and others
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The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes
- A Novel
- By: Leonard Goldberg
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
England, 1914. Joanna Blalock's keen mind and incredible insight lead her to become a highly skilled nurse, one of the few professions that allow her to use her finely tuned brain. But when she and her 10-year-old son witness a man fall to his death, apparently by suicide, they are visited by the elderly Dr. John Watson and his charming, handsome son, Dr. John Watson Jr. Impressed by her forensic skills, they invite her to become the third member of their investigative team.
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the dates in this book don't add up
- By Joani Pard on 08-12-17
By: Leonard Goldberg
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Murder at the Spring Ball
- A 1920s Mystery (Lord Edgington Investigates..., Book 1)
- By: Benedict Brown
- Narrated by: George Blagden
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
England, 1925. After years shut away from the world, former detective Lord Edgington of Cranley Hall plans a grand ball to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday. But when someone starts bumping off members of his scheming family, the old man enlists his teenage grandson to help find the killer, before one of them is next.
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Not that great
- By Julie on 01-23-22
By: Benedict Brown
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Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson
- Medical Mysteries: Volume 1
- By: Ed Chan, Lee Shackleford, Rob Nisbet, and others
- Narrated by: Tim Peck
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this two-volume collection of traditional Sherlock Holmes adventures, the good doctor himself is given a chance to shine. These two volumes contain 26 mysteries involving such maladies as plagues, poisonings, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, somnambulism, and many more! The stories are traditional Holmes pastiches and are written by some of today’s top Sherlockian writers!
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Good Book
- By John W on 09-12-23
By: Ed Chan, and others
Critic reviews
“MacBird's series grows stronger with each book and she remains the best and most faithful pastiche writer out there today—bar none.” (The Doylockian)
“Victorian London comes alive in this enthralling Christmas mystery, written with intelligence, style, and lovely period detail.” (Mimi Matthews, USA Today bestselling author)
“What Child Is This? is the most charming, entertaining Holmesian yarn I've read in years. True to the curmudgeonly character, this schmaltz-free Christmas novel also gives a fascinating look at the attitudes toward love and family in late Victorian England—while deftly weaving a suitably Sherlockian double mystery. A must read for Holmesians—and others!” (Matt Witten, bestselling author of The Necklace)
The book loses focus a bit by having a "major" mystery and a "minor" one. The minor mystery seems to be an excuse to bring in modern socio-sexual issues into the Victorian world of Holmes, where it seems awkward at best. I think that was a misfire as it really distracts from the main theme of the book.
The narration by Simon Darwen is once again outstanding.
Another solid Bonnie MacBird book
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Excellent Sherlock Holmes Story
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Delightful especially that I listened at Xmas time
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Fabulous
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Classic Holmes/Watson in 2022. Plus Narrator Fix!
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[climbs down from soap box]
Narrator is top notch, story is well done.
Pitch perfect (sort of)
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Another Terrific Holmes & Watson Novel in Bonny MacBird’s Series
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I would highly recommend, however; the author’s prior S&H books.
Ham Handed Plot.
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While the imagery is fantastic, told succinctly and vividly capturing Christmas essence with most scenes, What Child is This falls short in many other areas. The story is intriguing enough, and Holmes’ ability of deduction and picking up clues is fun in the story. So What Child is This started out with promise.
The character of Holmes leaves something to be desired. He is often much more cheerful and jovial than Holmes in his original work. There might be spurts of this in the classics, but his serious, often abrasive, demeanor is not captured well in this book.
Now for the crux of my rating. What Child is This was lining up for a solid three or four-star rating, but LGBT nonsense was the focus of the story. It’s not only that it’s difficult to find stories that aren’t saturated with this junk, but transgender nonsense didn’t even exist in the time period this is written for.
Truly sad, because this book had a lot of potential. I won’t be recommending it for anyone.
Great concept, poor execution
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Go woke Sherlock
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