A review by emsemce123
Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel by M. K. Wiseman

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

As someone who is a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and has read all of the original writings of Arthur Conan Doyle (admittedly it has been awhile and may be time for a reread) and a fair bit of adaptations/continuations/and reimaginings you always run the gambit of liking it or finding it good and compelling. I don't mind suspending my disbelief and I don't mind when writers take liberties with the source material or canon storylines (i.e. Moriarty survived the fall, Mary has died and Watson is a widower or remarried, etc.) The things that make an adaptation great to me are the ones that maintain the feeling of the characters and maybe even more the feel of a SH story. The best SH stories to me have been the ones where I love not Holmes himself but more his methodology, the stories that lay all the clues out in front of you for you to piece together yourself and yet still never crack the case until Holmes' explanation at the end and you slap yourself and say "of course, it's so simple." The writing here definitel  feels similar enough to the time period and something I wish I could emulate. My 2 main gripes with this are poor character work and Holmes methodology or lack thereof. He seems to stumble across clues rather than uncover them, granted I think the writer had a challenge including one of the most famous unsolved murders (and one I'm sure most SH fans always fantasize a story about; Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper) my second gripe being the characters. It's known from the original stories Holmes only accepts the cases he deems worthy or interesting enough of his time and talent, but I'm sure it's also written somewhere (The Final Problem?) That Holmes was the forthmost champion of justice and played the game for the games own sake. My point being I don't think Holmes would ignore the Whitechapel murders before the police came to him (at which point there'd already been multiple murders reported on in the papers) and I also don't think Holmes would suspect Watson so easily so soon on so little evidence.
The evidence does build as the story progresses to paint Watson as a believable suspect. It could've been done better or even better actually make Watson the ripper.
The resolution we get is a little lackluster in my opinion, not a terrible read but I think other Shelock Holmes fans will feel likes it's missing something or coming up short of expectations.