This is one of those books that just has me wanting to make inarticulate happy sounds just thinking about it. Not particularly the best headspace to be in when you’re trying to write a coherent review, but definitely the place you want to be from a reader’s perspective.

A Case of Madness is one of those books I just kept hearing about. No matter when I was scrolling on Instagram, there it was! Calling to me. Reminding me there, there was a book I told myself I would read.

Like most things, I took my time about picking it up because my memory is shot full of holes, even when I’m being constantly reminded of something. I’m so glad A Case of Madness kept showing up on my feed. If it hadn’t, I would have missed out on a great read that gave me the happy feels for days, and left me bitterly wanting more when it ended.

I think what instantly grabbed me about A Case of Madness was the main character, Andrew Thomas. He reminds me so much of myself in so many ways: completely obsessed with and in love with fictional characters, adores pens, has exactly one real life friend who loves him and would kill for him, is utterly socially awkward (Oh, the horror of it all), just wants to be home in his own pajama all the time. Oh. And he’s gay. So totally, and sweetly gay.

A few paragraphs in and I was hooked by this fictional character that resonated with my soul. And that was fantastic because a few pages in and he swept me off on a grand adventure about life, love, and finding our place in a world that feels too big and scary for us. A world we just might not understand and that makes us want to go home and read a book in our pajamas.

Reading this book was like finding bits of my own life strewn across paper, and it made me feel I just might be strong enough to maybe face some of the heartache going on in my own life.

Thinking he’s going to die, knowing he’s gone mad, but going on despite it, Andrew Thomas talks with Sherlock Holmes, meets a whole cast of fabulous, queer found family, and delights with his anxious wit (Oh, the horror of it all). I spent a good three days (nights, actually) reading this book for hours on end and smiling like an idiot at my phone.

Honestly, my only complaint was that the ending seemed to come too soon and had a slightly rushed feel to it. There were a few story threads that I felt weren’t fully wrapped up and an extremely limited amount of confusion around the ending that I felt a couple extra pages could have remedied. The beginning of the book is incredibly detailed and exquisitely paced; some of that was lost near the end. I will say, I was privileged enough to read an advance reader copy (an ARC), so these issues could very well be resolved in the fully edited version. I have no way of knowing, until I get a physical book in my hands.

But let’s face it, if my biggest complaint is, “I wish there was more of this!” it isn’t much of a complaint.

A Case of Madness is well written, absolutely delightful, and something I highly recommend for anyone who just wants to read a beautifully crafted book and feel good while doing it. (Oh, the pleasure of it all.)

I wish i could give half ratings. I'd say this was a 3.5/3.75 to be ultra specific. This was a wonderful story that i could happily read more of. I loved the mc (most of the time) and all the side cast. I knew next to nothing about Sherlock and this was a nice way to read about it. I enjoyed the writing too. It was so full of life!
The only thing is that i found it too fast paced i guess, i was shocked it was only a few days. I wish there were more of the side characters too as i thought they were pretty interesting.
I'm grateful to netgalley for the advanced copy :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Yvonne Knop for an ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

I should start with saying i haven't read any Sherlock before (however i have seen their stories in other media) but after reading this story it has definitely got me interested in checking out the original stories themselves.

Back to this book though, i had a very good time reading it and was surprised by how deep it managed to reach me. The characters were endearing and felt like real people you would meet and as a gay man, the struggles with identity and love felt all too real. I would be very interested in checking out future work by this writer.

I liked this a lot.... lots of feelings and not what I was expecting

Andrew is having a rough go of it. He’s just lost his job, he’s got cancer, and he’s deeply closeted which is causing other issues. And oh yeah, he keeps getting visits from Sherlock Holmes.

Throw in a chance encounter with Matt, first knocking him off his feet, and then saving him from an attack, his life gets thrown onto a trajectory he cannot escape.

I loved this! All of Andrew’s messiness, his little (and major) quirks making him an entertaining character. Throw in his best friend Mina, who i would love to have in my life, and you can only imagine the adventures they’d have!

While I know this is mainly Andrew’s story, I would have liked to dove more into Matt as a character as I feel that there were things in his past that would have fleshed out the story.

Overall, this was a fun read, and I hope there is more Andrew and Matt to come

Thank you so much to the author Yvonne Knop for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I stayed up until 3am to finish this.

This is a book about a man called Andrew who has cancer, has just been fired from his job and is struggling with the fact that he is gay. He is also a massive Sherlock Holmes fan. You can imagine his surprise then when Sherlock himself turns up in his living room to solve “his case”. While outside the university he’s just been fired from, Andrew meets Matt, an actor. He later saves his life after he is attacked by a group of homophobic men and a beautiful relationship blossoms. However, Andrew needs to face his fears if he is to fully flourish.

Oh my God Yvonne this was perfect! The writing, the characters, the story! Everything was perfect! The main character Andrew is probably the most relatable character I have ever been inside the head of. I am autistic and although it’s not explicitly stated, I think Andrew is too (and also Sherlock Holmes is thought to be autistic too!). His love of everything Sherlock and his passion for talking about and trying to bring it up in every conversation is literally me with K-Pop. Also I really appreciated his dislike towards the BBC show “Sherlock” because I happen to highly dislike that version as well. The only TV adaptation that Andrew likes is also my favourite! Andrew’s sense of “humour” is like mine, I was cracking up at so many of his comments because I was thinking “that’s exactly what I would say”.

I suppose I should go into my history with Sherlock Holmes. I was literally brought up on it. My Mum loves it and has now gifted me her beautiful boxed set of the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. When I was 17 I went on a residential field trip to Buckfastleigh and stayed right next to the ruined church that inspired the Hounds of Baskerville. We went to the church in the dark which as you can imagine was a fun time. The TV series with Jeremy Brett was regularly on our television and even now when I visit I regularly see his face!

All that is to say I really appreciated the research that Yvonne has done to complete this novel. They have obviously left no stone unturned and the result is an extremely factually correct depiction of Sherlock Holmes and his cases. You can see the passion that was put into writing this beautiful book.

The characters were so lovable and this friend group was amazing. There was so much LGBTQ+ representation in here. I especially enjoyed the representation of a man struggling with his sexuality later in life. There are many people who need to see that representation. What I love about this book as well is Yvonne takes the time to educate the reader on what terms such as “non binary” and “pansexual” mean. I love this because it leaves no room for ignorance and may also help people to be more accepting and conscious of using correct pronouns.

I really hope this book gets the success it deserves and reaches the audiences that need it most. It’s released on 20th March 2023 and all pre-orders will have a portion donated to the LGBTQ+ charity MindOut which is a charity that provides mental health services to anyone under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. It’s a really important charity so please consider pre-ordering! I throughly enjoyed this and would wholeheartedly recommend it to EVERYONE.



Merged review:

Thank you so much to the author Yvonne Knop for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I stayed up until 3am to finish this.

This is a book about a man called Andrew who has cancer, has just been fired from his job and is struggling with the fact that he is gay. He is also a massive Sherlock Holmes fan. You can imagine his surprise then when Sherlock himself turns up in his living room to solve “his case”. While outside the university he’s just been fired from, Andrew meets Matt, an actor. He later saves his life after he is attacked by a group of homophobic men and a beautiful relationship blossoms. However, Andrew needs to face his fears if he is to fully flourish.

Oh my God Yvonne this was perfect! The writing, the characters, the story! Everything was perfect! The main character Andrew is probably the most relatable character I have ever been inside the head of. I am autistic and although it’s not explicitly stated, I think Andrew is too (and also Sherlock Holmes is thought to be autistic too!). His love of everything Sherlock and his passion for talking about and trying to bring it up in every conversation is literally me with K-Pop. Also I really appreciated his dislike towards the BBC show “Sherlock” because I happen to highly dislike that version as well. The only TV adaptation that Andrew likes is also my favourite! Andrew’s sense of “humour” is like mine, I was cracking up at so many of his comments because I was thinking “that’s exactly what I would say”.

I suppose I should go into my history with Sherlock Holmes. I was literally brought up on it. My Mum loves it and has now gifted me her beautiful boxed set of the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. When I was 17 I went on a residential field trip to Buckfastleigh and stayed right next to the ruined church that inspired the Hounds of Baskerville. We went to the church in the dark which as you can imagine was a fun time. The TV series with Jeremy Brett was regularly on our television and even now when I visit I regularly see his face!

All that is to say I really appreciated the research that Yvonne has done to complete this novel. They have obviously left no stone unturned and the result is an extremely factually correct depiction of Sherlock Holmes and his cases. You can see the passion that was put into writing this beautiful book.

The characters were so lovable and this friend group was amazing. There was so much LGBTQ+ representation in here. I especially enjoyed the representation of a man struggling with his sexuality later in life. There are many people who need to see that representation. What I love about this book as well is Yvonne takes the time to educate the reader on what terms such as “non binary” and “pansexual” mean. I love this because it leaves no room for ignorance and may also help people to be more accepting and conscious of using correct pronouns.

I really hope this book gets the success it deserves and reaches the audiences that need it most. It’s released on 20th March 2023 and all pre-orders will have a portion donated to the LGBTQ+ charity MindOut which is a charity that provides mental health services to anyone under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. It’s a really important charity so please consider pre-ordering! I throughly enjoyed this and would wholeheartedly recommend it to EVERYONE.