REVIEW: The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison
Dear Katherine Addison,
Your steampunk fantasy novel, The Goblin Emperor, was my second favorite book of 2014 (my favorite being Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel). The Goblin Emperor held a tinge of melancholy, but also of hopefulness, and the balance of the two made the reading experience an act of self-care. I have now read it four times, and although it has its imperfections, I’m still very fond of it. I have a friend who has read it well over ten times, and comes back to it whenever she is in need of comfort. It’s that kind of book.
Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to your latest release, The Angel of the Crows, an entirely different book that showcases some of the same gifts displayed in The Goblin Emperor. When I heard it was coming out, I requested an ARC.
The title, The Angel of the Crows, is a misnomer. There is an angel in the book, and he bears some resemblance to a crow, and is therefore named Crow. There aren’t crows in the plural, though, so the title feels like false advertising. So does the blurb. Though everything mentioned there is in the book, the most salient fact is omitted: this is a fantastical retelling of Sherlock Holmes. Per the Author’s Note at the end of the book, the novel started out as a wingfic, a type of fanfic where well-known characters are given wings.
The book begins when Doyle, a doctor, returns to England (a fantastical, alternate version of 1880s England) aboard a dirigible. Doyle saw some action in a war in Afghanistan and was attacked by one of the Fallen (fallen angels). Few people survive such encounters, and although Doyle did, he wishes he had been left for dead. The extent of his injuries is such that he can no longer work and must instead subsist on a meager pension.
Despite his disability, Doyle manages to foil an American businessman, Enoch J. Drebber of Salt Lake City, from harassing a young woman aboard the airship. When he lands in London, Doyle is miserable. London is the last place he wishes to be, but, due to a secret he carries, the only place he feels he can manage.
London’s doctors tell him what he already knows: nothing more can be done for his injuries. He does not tell them something else: he is no longer quite human. The Fallen’s attack changed him into another kind of being. What, exactly, isn’t made clear to the reader for a long while.
The cost of living in London is steep, and Doyle is running out of funds. He lucks out one day, though, when one of the men with whom he studied medicine introduces him to Crow, an angel, and suggests that they might suit each other well enough to room together.
Not long after Doyle and Crow move in together, Crow is called by the police to help investigate the scene of a murder. Doyle comes along and recognizes the dead man’s body. He is none other than Enoch J. Drebber, the revolting Salt Lake City businessman Doyle encountered on the airship. Soon Doyle is attending other crime scenes and becoming enmeshed in Crow’s penchant for mystery solving.
Crow is the character inspired by Sherlock Holmes. He loves puzzles and is obsessed with them, poring over newspapers day and night (angels don’t need sleep) to track investigations. He helps the police with tough cases when they request his help and grouses when they do not. Crow is more perceptive than the police, but there are big gaps in his knowledge when it comes to things like what human beings consider polite. He always means well, though.
Doyle is the Watson figure. He is irascible and very vulnerable, because he believes that if the full truth about him were known no one would accept him. He fears Crow will discover everything. Still, Crow is so kind (though at first it’s not clear whether his kindness is a mannerism or motivated by genuine empathy and liking) and Doyle is so lonely that Doyle cannot help but get closer to Crow, like a shivering man nearing a warm fireplace.
Through this acquaintance, Doyle becomes more than a sounding board for Crow’s crime solving. He starts to observe clues and think through what they might mean, and he gets better at this. Not every mystery in the book is solved by Crow, although Crow solves most of them and is better at deduction than Doyle.
There is a bit of mystery about Crow as well. He doesn’t look like other angels and whereas most angels need a habitat to survive and cannot leave their habitats, Crow has no habitat and can come and go as he pleases. Eventually we learn why.
The main, overarching plot of the novel is about Crow and Doyle’s relationship and how it develops from that of strangers who room together to that of close, loyal friends. This is touching and heartwarming and in that way, reminded me of The Goblin Emperor. The other part of the overarching plot is a search for a man who has been murdering and carving up prostitutes, dubbed Jack the Ripper. That investigation gets grisly, but the tenderness of Crow’s friendship with Doyle is a buffer from the horrifying aspect of the violence. The lovable nature of Crow and Doyle comes through strongly in these sections.
Within this overarching plot, episodic subplots are clustered and each involves a different investigation. These are heavily influenced by Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Sherlock stories, except that fantastical elements are woven into them. So for example, the dead Lucy in the book’s riff on A Study in Scarlet is an angel, and the hound in the episode patterned after The Hound of the Baskervilles is a hellhound.
There are seven or eight of these episodic subplots, and they hew so closely Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels and stories that I honestly wonder whether, if Arthur Conan Doyle were alive today, he could win a lawsuit on grounds of plagiarism.
The Angel of the Crows is set in 1880s London and a lot of research has been done into the time period. The worldbuilding is marvelously good, as in The Goblin Emperor. There are a lot of details about angels and other fantastical creatures, and about how the angel subculture and society work.
I won’t go into the details due to spoilers, but the world is intricate and seamless, and it reads like there is a lot more to this world than what is on the page because the details feel real and tangible. Every aspect of the world is thought through. The actual and the fantastical mesh really well.
The characters are as wonderfully endearing, and there are queer elements I don’t want to say too much about because parts of the pleasure is in their discovery. I’m no expert on these but I liked the way they were handled.
Although I loved the development of Doyle and Crow’s relationship, The Angel of the Crows feels less substantial than The Goblin Emperor. The Goblin Emperor explored the conundrums presented by a desire to lead a nation well. This was a smaller scale novel, and while it contained social commentary (particularly with regard to its queer aspect and to other forms of bigotry), the narrower scope gives readers less to chew on. Probably that is also due to how closely the novel clings to Sherlock. That gives it less room to diverge and dig into the world.
I loved the characters, though. Doyle’s vulnerability made it easy to understand his irascible nature and empathize with his secret burdens. Crow really is a dear, a lovely person. Though at first Doyle doesn’t know if angels are capable of caring deeply about other people, Crow shows that he cares very much (not in a romantic way). There are some aspects of Crow’s personal history that are only hinted at and while I was curious to know more, after thinking about it, I realized that this was just the right amount to know about them.
The resolution to one of Doyle’s dilemmas slightly marred the ending for me.
Spoiler: Show
It also read like the novel had been written into a corner.
I enjoyed the book very much, but I had not read Arthur Conan Doyle since elementary school and I’m certain that was a factor. I didn’t remember the Sherlock plots, only the characters, and even that vaguely, so the plot turns in The Angel of the Crows came as a surprise to me. I read some Sherlock Holmes entries on Wikipedia after I finished the book and was disappointed to realize just how much was taken from Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels. I enjoyed the book but advise fans of Sherlock Holmes to proceed with caution. B.
Sincerely,
Janine
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Looking at the Amazon reviews, it seems a lot of people are annoyed that this is Sherlock Holmesfic.
I am reading it now. Yes it is very much a fanfic, and I am enjoying it as a *fanfic*. I really love Sherlock and used to read some stories in that fandom. I mostly made my peace with the obnoxious prices of the big publishers in a sense that I will pay if I really want the book, since I can afford it and I wont pay for too many books. But man fifteen dollars for fanfic. It burns .
Sorry thank you for review Janine.
Weirdly, the fact that this is wingfic of Sherlock Holmes is the first thing that really makes me want to read it! I tend to shy away from angel stories but variations on the theme of Holmes are exactly my cup of tea. Thanks! Adding this to my TBR list post haste!
Janine
Lovely review.
You summed up the ‘comfort read’ aspects very well. Crow is a wonderful character; and I loved Doyle.
I closed the book with a smile on my face.
Janine, thanks for your review! I’m looking forward to reading this.
It sounds very good and I really do enjoy Holmesian (can that be a word?) fiction. Mercedes Lackey has written several that are part of her Elemental Masters series. (Holmes is not a wizard, but Watson and his wife both are.)
There are many, many Holmes fanfics out there. The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes series by Leonard Goldberg is also pretty good.
However, I think I will wait for the paperback! I too loved Goblin Emperor and I think many fans out there will be sad or annoyed that this is not a sequel. Does it seem to be set in the same world at all?
@Jayne: Yeah. I think some of that has to do with the misleading blurb. But certainly the similarity of the plot is a factor too. I am glad I found out what it was about before I read it.
@Sirius: So you decided to read it after all! I would love to hear what you think when you finish.
Fifteen dollar is a lot for any kind of ebook. Macmillan tends to overprice and in this case they were probably counting on the big fandom of The Goblin Emperor. I remember when The Goblin Emperor came out it was around $14 for the ebook. It was an impulse buy for me; I almost never spend that much money on a book by an author I’m not that familiar with (I had read one of her Monette novellas and loved it but that was it).
@Lane: I hope you enjoy it! I would love to hear what you think.
@Barb in Maryland: Yes, the characters were great. I debated giving the book a B+ because I loved both so much.
@Kareni: Enjoy!
@Kari S.: Yeah, there is a ton of Sherlock-related fiction. I have not read any that borrow the plot from the Sherlock stories but I hardly ever read fanfic. Is that common?
I hope you enjoy the book. I agree that the popularity of The Goblin Emperor is a big part of the reason for the disappointment. The Goblin Emperor has a big and devoted following and it’s been six years that we’ve been waiting for a related book!
No, this is not set in the same world. But Addison has another book in the works that is. A publication date has not been announced yet but the title is Witness for the Dead. I’m hoping that it’s about Mer Celehar.
Well, I wouldn’t say it’s common for the bulk of what I’ve read. I haven’t read a ton, and most of it has been short stories. What is really common is that authors borrow titles from the various Holmes novellas and short stories and twist them a little before writing their own story, which may or may not have similarities to the original stories. Lackey did that, and so did Goldberg. (Lackey’s series also borrows heavily from classic fairy tales.)
There is a series that’s about Watson alone set during the First World War. I have a few of the titles in my tbr mountain. It sounds really good, but also a bit grim, which is why I haven’t tackled it yet. One series that’s really well done is Laurie R. King’s Sherlock and Mary Russell series set much later. Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler also appear in Theodora Goss’s mystery/fantasy series about monster daughters. I got bogged down in the middle of the last one I bought and need to get back to it. It was a bit too long, even for me.
There are many, many more. As this new book demonstrates. Authors can’t seem to be able to resist Holmes and Watson. There is a famous classic essay called “Watson was a woman” that’s pretty funny. Google it. Also, Neil Gaiman wrote a Lovecraftian story where Moriarty, not Holmes, is the good guy! “A Study in Emerald” is the title of that one and you can read it for free on Tor.com.
@Kari S.: Yeah, I was aware of some of the Sherlock retelling novels that you mentioned. I am actually a critique partner for Sherry Thomas, who writes the Lady Sherlock series. :-) What I wasn’t sure about was unpublished fanfics, the kind you can find on Archives of Our Own. Since this book started as fanfic, rather than a novel manuscript, I was curious about that.
I haven’t tackled the Lady Sherlock books yet. Are they really good? I have seen good reviews of the individual titles. I read so much (fantasy, sci-fi, romance and cozy mysteries plus a fair amount of nonfiction and children’s lit) that I try new series slowly, afraid that yet another auto-buy author will go into my piles and piles of (physical) books. I’m not in the habit of reading ebooks yet. I have a Kindle app on the family iPad but only use it when I can’t access a book or novella any other way.
I can’t answer the question about amateur fanfics because I really don’t go there with my reading. There’s too much out there; I’d never get anything done if I was mining an endless source of free fiction! Additionally, my early exposures to fanfic weren’t that impressive.
@Kari S.: Well, I’m biased about the Lady Sherlock books. And since I critique them before publication, I have an influence on their development and rely on my reading tastes for that, so they go in the direction of what I like to read. My favorite is A Conspiracy in Belgravia, book two, but I highly recommend starting at the beginning with book one, A Study in Scarlet, if you decide to read try them. That is where the characters and their relationships are introduced and there is quite a bit of setup for the series there.
I can sympathize with your feelings about your paper TBR pile. I have a lot of books still, and I have culled my print collection three times in the past twelve years (each time I moved)! They have a way of mushrooming anyhow. But now I read almost exclusively on the kindle, and the kindle has grown my TBR pile exponentially. It is so easy to do that because there is no physical evidence of the books’ presence, and because there are so many sales. Speaking of, coincidentally, the first Lady Sherlock book is on sale for $2.99 today.
I haven’t had the best luck with fanfic either, though I understand there’s very good reading material to be found there.
I have not read Goblin Emperor but this one is seducing me to try it… Since they are not related, one can read this one without danger of spoilers to the world in Goblin Emperor?
Is there any romantic continuation to the main characters’ friendship?
Thank you for this review; it makes me want to read the book. :)
@Sonia, The Goblin Emperor is totally unconnected to this book. It’s a wonderful book and definitely a comfort read for me. Overall, it’s an optimistic book. If you read it, I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Kareni, thank you for commenting.
I’ll likely try this one and if the writing style appeals, I might try Goblin Emperor as well.
@Sonia: As Kareni said, there is no connection between the two books. There is no romance in The Angel of the Crows. The Goblin Emperor has a romantic subplot.
Thank you, Janine!
Thank you for reviewing this book, Janine. I’m a Goblin Emperor audiobook fan (Kyle McCarley give such a marvelous performance) so have been anticipating this book. I think I’ll still try because you enjoyed the relationship between the characters but I’ll have lower expectations of the plot.
I haven’t read any Sherlokian fiction (besides the originals long ago) and wonder which book/series would be best to try.
@Lada: You’re welcome. :) I haven’t listened to the audiobook version of The Goblin Emperor but I remember hearing great things about it from former DA reviewer Robin. I would love to hear how how The Angel of the Crows woks out for you.
Maybe others can make suggestions on Sherlockian fiction, as you call it. I haven’t read any besides the Sherry Thomas series I discussed above.
Regarding Holmesian fiction:
There’s a lot out there but in no way have I read all of them! This is what I have read or have (though not necessarily every book in each series).
The best known is probably Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series. An aging Sherlock Holmes who has retired to keep bees (Doyle’s idea) takes on a very young Mary Russell, an orphan, as his apprentice. I haven’t read them all and there are many! They marry after several books. (Not a spoiler, trust me.) One of the books features a cameo appearance by a very young Lord Peter Wimsey. The first title is The Bee Keeper’s Apprentice.
Mercedes Lackey includes Holmes, Watson and Mary Watson in her Elemental Masters fantasy series starting with A Study in Sable (book 11). I this continues thru Book 14 (the forthcoming Case of the Spellbound Child). Watson and his wife are elemental magicians and Holmes has a really hard time believing in their gifts. I enjoyed them.
Carole Nelson Douglas wrote a series about Irene Adler, “The Woman” in the eyes of Holmes. She is happily married to someone else but does have contact with Holmes now and then. I enjoyed at least the first two of them, but they’re old.
Theodora Goss includes Holmes as a supporting character in her Monstrous Women series, beginning with The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter.
Leonard Goldberg is writing a series beginning with The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes. The 4th book has just been released. The books are narrated by John Watson, Jr. who is married to Joanna, the daughter of Holmes, by the second book. Fun but I’m not buying them in hardback. Watson Sr. is also a character.
There is a series with Watson as a military doctor in World War I by Robert Ryan. The first title is Dead Man’s Land.
There are more and more! This is only what I’ve read or have in my tbr mountain. There are a lot of anthologies of short fiction out there, too, with titles like Resurrected Holmes or The Mammoth Book of Sherlock Holmes stories. In the past I have discovered great new authors by reading anthologies.
Hope this helps, and if I think up more I will post again.
Don’t get me started on Pride and Prejudice sequels…
LOL. There are too many of those to keep track of.
Thanks, Janine. I’d managed to forget this was coming out.
Seeing your review, I bought the book (£5 for the ebook in the UK) and read it before reading the review.
So, my dad read Sherlock Holmes, and I adored him, so I read the books early – I remember at ten, on a school trip to Madame Tussauds’s seeing a street sign and realising that Baker Street was a real place and being thrilled to the core – so they were formative books for me.
I think this book captures the spirit of the originals really well: almost too well, because certainly through the first part of the book I was wondering what the point of it all was – not that I minded, because I enjoyed reading it all again, because I love the books.
I have, a couple of times, read fanfic where the voice of the fanfic author was nearly indistinguishable from the original author, and this wasn’t one of those – but for all the changes, it feels very much like the same stories, remixed and reprised, and just as good as the originals – except that Crow is not Holmes at all and there is only a passing resemblance between Doyle and Watson.
I’m left not really understanding the why of it all, unless there is no why, and it’s like building a model of the Titanic out of matchsticks – just an interesting project for the creator. Having said that, I think I’d rate it higher than you did – I have read a number of post-Conan Doyle Holmes stories, and I think this is really good.
I don’t think I’d have known it was written by the person who wrote The Goblin Emperor, but I do think the quality of the writing is, unsurprisingly, the same.
@MMcA: I’m glad you enjoyed the book! :)
I would have rated it a B+ if I were grading on the basis of my enjoyment alone, but after looking at the summaries of A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles, I realized this was even closer to Arthur Conan Doyle that I’d thought. Even the way Doyle and Crow were introduced was very similar. It disappointed me a little so I took some points off for that.
I love Addison’s voice. I probably wouldn’t have guessed this was Addison either because the type of story was so different, but I love her writing style, the detail in her worldbuilding, and the gentleness of her central characters. Those are to be found in The Goblin Emperor also.
As to the why, maybe it was the story of how Crow and Doyle’s friendship grew that she wanted to tell? That is the only reason I can think of in terms of the story itself. But maybe she just did it for fun. I like your “building a model of the Titanic out of matchsticks” analogy. That’s how a lot of fanfic starts out.