The premise of Angels of Music is cool: the Phantom of the Opera runs a secret detective service and employs ladies of the opera house as “Angels”. The set up reminiscent of Charlie’s Angels is pretty deliberate. There are several actual characters from the original novella by Gaston Leroux but in different forms. Christine Daee is one of the original Angels, and there is also a Raoul, but no Philippe, and a Count de Chagny. Where things get a little weird is that mix of […]
The Final (Sherlock Holmes) Countdown
All right, folks. I’ve finally reached the end—the last of the Sherlock Holmes mystery collections! I’m excited to have made my collection complete. I don’t know if I’ll need to go through a re-read of the entire series again, though I definitely have favorite stories I’ll want to revisit. I’ve definitely decided NOT to go through with the Anthony Horowitz adaptations, but I WILL be giving the Mary Russell books a try. And I definitely need to rewatch some Sherlock after this. As always, I […]
The penultimate Sherlock story extravaganza
I’m winding down to a close with the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Thanks to the hints and clues dropped in His Last Bow, I think I would enjoy the Mary Russell mysteries. The idea of Holmes beekeeping initially seems like kind of a cop-out on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s part, but Laurie R. King seems to have taken the idea and turned into something interesting and provocative. Anyway: back to this collection. I thought there were some strong adventures here, and it seems like Doyle knew […]
The final Sherlock Holmes novel
In my Sherlock Holmes reading, I vaguely remember reading The Valley of Fear many years ago, but I couldn’t have told you what it was about. Part of my mission in going through the stories and novels this time was for my own memory purposes. While The Valley of Fear doesn’t break a lot of new ground, it does give insight into Sherlock Holmes’ method of investigation. Plus, the novel gives Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to develop more of the methodology and adventure one comes […]