Death Cloud - Young Sherlock Holmes

In 1868 fictional (?) character Sherlock Holmes was only 14. According to this Andrew Lane series, which is actually approved by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, young Sherlock has been sent by his brother, Mycroft, to live with their un-child-friendly aunt and uncle in Hampshire. There he is sent a tutor, mysterious American Amyus Crowe. This is where his skills at deduction and reasoning are first encouraged. When two people die from what Sherlock and his new friend, street urchin Matty, think looks like a plague, their investigation uncovers a dastardly villain and dangerous plot. No spoilers here!

I liked this audiobook and liked the window it opened into Holmes' world – the isolation, fear, and uncertainty were very touching.

Author Andy Lane is well known for writing spin off novels from the Doctor Who  and James Bond series. I'm hoping the Young Sherlock Holmes series has some staying power as well.

I've only listened to the first book in this new series, Death Cloud. There are three sequels to date – Red Leech, Black Ice and Firestorm (coming in November 2011).  Library to Go, and our library, don't have the sequels yet but I'm on the prowl for them.

    

Dan Weyman did a very nice job of reading the book. It was very English, yet not inaccessible to teens. In researching this I discovered that there is an abridged version read by Dan Stevens. Now, I haven't listened to this version, but seriously? The original version is only 7 hours – not very long by audiobook standards. So why bother making an abridged version that's 5 hours? I don't get it. And don't get me started on abridged versions in general – that atrocious concept I'll save for another posting!

Library to Go has the first book unabridged. Audible has the first book abridged and unabridged, and the 2nd book abridged. I can't find unabridged copies of the next two but I will keep searching and report in.

You can listen to a sample at Audible.

Listen Up!

Death Cloud, (7 hrs, 16 mins), Hachette / AudioGo, (2011)