The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
Alexis Hall
In this charming, witty, and weird fantasy novel, Alexis Hall pays homage to Sherlock Holmes with a new twist on those renowned characters. Upon returning to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years fighting a war in another universe, Captain John Wyndham finds himself looking for somewhere to live, and expediency forces him to take lodgings at 221b Martyrs Walk. His new housemate is Ms. Shaharazad Haas, a consulting sorceress of mercurial temperament and dark reputation. When Ms. Haas is enlisted to solve a case of blackmail against one of her former lovers, Miss Eirene Viola, Captain Wyndham is drawn into a mystery that leads him from the salons of the literary set to the drowned back-alleys of Ven and even to a prison cell in lost Carcosa. Along the way he is beset by criminals, menaced by pirates, molested by vampires, almost devoured by mad gods, and called upon to punch a shark. But the further the companions go in pursuit of the elusive blackmailer, the more impossible the case appears. Then again, in Khelathra-Ven reality is flexible, and the impossible is Ms. Haas' stock-in-trade.
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0Look, I absolutely understand the mixed reviews on this but this was so much a me book that I knew this would be a 5 star book from the very beginning and my enjoyment in listening to the story throughout just confirmed that.
The Affair of the Mysterious Letter is such a perfect mashup of Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft, with the Holmes stand-in being a drug-addicted, snarky and straight up rude sorceress and her sidekick being the very reluctant, uptight former soldier/cultist that she drags into one scrape after another. There are a ton of Lovecraft location references and plays on his better themes. I also adored the exasperated affection of Second Augur Lawson which had strong vibes of the police constables in Holmes but with a slight hint of romance.
The story is told from the perspective of the Watson stand-in, Captain John Wyndham and is very rambling with constant asides and commentary, which I'm discovering is a style that works really well for me. I also just really gel with Hall's sense of humor and snark so I found myself constantly laughing out loud while listening.
The narration by Nicholas Boulton was particularly good, with different accents for some of the side characters and exactly the kind of over the top inflection that made it feel so larger than life and adventurous.
I enjoyed this one so much that it immediately made Alexis Hall an auto-buy author for me and if you like sort of fantasy-mystery-horror mashups and a very snarky, silly tone and a rambling narrator, I'd highly recommend it!
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