The Affair of the Mysterious Letter

April 8, 2019
This zany queer and fantastical pastiche of the Sherlock Holmes stories froths with magic and humor. Its narrator, John Wyndham, is Watson to the Sherlock of Shaharazad Haas, a drug-bingeing sorceress who possesses formidable skills of deduction. Their client is Lady Eirene Viola Delhali, a socialite being blackmailed with anonymous letters that demand she break off her impending nuptials to her lover, Cora Beck. When Shaharazad narrows down the possible suspects to five, the stage is set for a series of adventures across the triple cities of Khelathra-Ven, a locale fluid in time and space that includes realms modeled on Robert W. Chambers’s The King in Yellow and the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Hall (For Real) nudges the reader’s ribs with subtle satires of the works he’s mashing up, and enlivens the plot with amusing scrapes and confrontations attributable to Shaharazad’s infamy from (suggested) past exploits. This is a fun riff on canonical works of fantasy and detection. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary.

Narrator Nicholas Boulton adopts a diverse collection of accents and personalities as he portrays magical creatures, vampires, soldiers, and other things that haunt the paranormal worlds in this audiobook. In the style of the Sherlock Holmes opus, Captain John Wyndham recounts his life upon his return to the city of Khelathra-Ven. Wyndham finds lodgings at 221b Martyrs Walk, the home of the sorceress Miss Shaharazad Haas. Boulton, adopting a tone reminiscent of Dr. Watson, begins Wyndham's description of their investigation into who is blackmailing Haas's lover, Miss Eirene Viola. Boulton's steady narration, full of asides and detailed background details, shifts to represent each character. Sherlock Holmes lovers will enjoy this imaginative story. M.B.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine