Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Ghost Machine by David MacGregor (ARC) - Review

❋ ❋ ❋ ❋
I received an ARC from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

London: November 1905. England and the world are changing. Into the rooms of Sherlock Holmes come Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison-with new inventions that will alter the course of human history-only both inventions have gone missing. Can Holmes, Watson, and Irene Adler somehow unravel the latest diabolical scheme of Marie Chartier-evil daughter of the late Professor Moriarty? Can world peace be achieved by the most powerful weapon ever created? Can death itself be overcome by a scientific genius? And can Sherlock Holmes survive the greatest personal loss of his career?

Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Ghost Machine (Sherlock and Irene #3) by David MacGregor released by MX Publishing is a great Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are a couple of my all time favorite characters in literature, so as soon as I saw that this short novel was available via Reedsy Discovery I knew that I had to give it a try. I have never read anything from this author before, and I have never read any of the other Sherlock books in this series (or from this publisher, as a matter of fact), so I did not have any particular expectations going in. Luckily for me, this pastiche was quite a pleasant surprise.

David MacGregor did a fantastic job of bringing the cast of characters to life as well as the city of London. He is able to replicate the tone and the feel of Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories and he is also able to bring some new refreshing elements to the story. These elements, particularly involving Irene Adler, are integrated into the story very well. There have been a few Sherlock stories I've read (or watched) where some changes to what I think of as standard Holmes feel forced or unnatural, but that is not the case here. The mystery is engaging, but the characters and their interactions are what really make this novel. Sherlock and Watson are fun as always and it is just plain delightful to see them at work in this book. I would compare this iteration of their characters as most reminiscent to Jeremy Brett and David Burke, with a little dash of the Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law's portrayals. My only issue is that there were a few moments where I felt a little out of the loop. After all, this is actually the third book in a series where I haven't read either of the previous books. For the most part, though, I didn't have any problem following the story.

Overall, if you're a fan of the classic detective I have a feeling you'll want to give David MacGregor's Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of the Ghost Machine a try. He does a wonderful job of bringing everyone and everything to life and he's able to keep everything moving right along. I'm going to have to read more his Sherlock Holmes stories and check out some other titles from MX Publishing in the future.

My review is also on Reedsy Discovery and Goodreads.