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  • Art in the Blood

  • A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, Book 1
  • By: Bonnie MacBird
  • Narrated by: Thomas Judd
  • Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (146 ratings)

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Art in the Blood

By: Bonnie MacBird
Narrated by: Thomas Judd
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Summary

London. A snowy December, 1888. Sherlock Holmes, 34, is languishing and back on cocaine after a disastrous Ripper investigation. Watson can neither comfort nor rouse his friend – until a strangely encoded letter arrives from Paris.

Mlle La Victoire, a beautiful French cabaret star writes that her illegitimate son by an English lord has disappeared, and she has been attacked in the streets of Montmartre.

Racing to Paris with Watson at his side, Holmes discovers the missing child is only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger problem. The most valuable statue since the Winged Victory has been violently stolen in Marseilles, and several children from a silk mill in Lancashire have been found murdered. The clues in all three cases point to a single, untouchable man.

Will Holmes recover in time to find the missing boy and stop a rising tide of murders? To do so he must stay one step ahead of a dangerous French rival and the threatening interference of his own brother, Mycroft.

This latest adventure, in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sends the iconic duo from London to Paris and the icy wilds of Lancashire in a case which tests Watson's friendship and the fragility and gifts of Sherlock Holmes' own artistic nature to the limits.

©2016 Bonnie MacBird (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
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Critic reviews

“A pacy and twisting story – made me forget I wasn’t reading a Sir Arthur original.”—The Sun

"In a world with more than its share of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, it is rare for one to soar above the rest, but Bonnie MacBird's Art in the Blood achieves this singular feat and deserves a tip of the deerstalker." –-Otto Penzler, editor, “The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories"

“Dark, stylish, ingeniously plotted. Gripping, enthralling read. Holmes & Watson live!” –-Hugh Fraser

“A thoroughly entertaining Sherlock Holmes adventure worthy of Doyle himself. … vivid period detail, a superb, labyrinthine plot, snappy pacing and, most importantly, a deep respect for the classic characters.” –-Bryan Cogman, Producer/Writer, HBO's Game of Thrones

"Bonnie MacBird's ART IN THE BLOOD has the three key ingredients for a delicious pastiche: Meticulous research, plausibility, and grand fun!" –-Leslie S. Klinger, editor, “The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes”

What listeners say about Art in the Blood

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good adaption of Sherlock stories

Took me a while to get used to the voice of Sherlock but I soon did and the stories and narration was very good.

I enjoyed the stories a lot

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Art in the blood

The style was more Agatha Christie than Conan Doyle. It was saved by being very well read.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good old Sherlock!

Loved it. Couldn't put the damn thing down! Cannot wait to download another one and start another Sherlock adventure.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good story not written in the way Sir Arthur’s style

The biggest failing for me was the use of modern American English weather than the english English and vocabulary used by Conan Doyle.
I found that a distraction as I kept on think there is no way Dr Watson would have said that.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

absorbing

didn't like the beginning.Once I got into the story could't turn it off. awesome listen

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Not the best

I listened to the stories out of order and have to say that had I listened to this one first, I doubt very much I would have bothered with the next two, which would have been a real shame.

In this story far too much of the narrative is about Watson rather than Holmes and it lacks the tone, language and feel of the original works. What really grates though is that the narrator lacks the vocal range or gravitas to bring any kind of suspense to the story and it makes it extremely difficult to feel any kind of attachment to the story or anticipation of what is to come next.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The Games Afoot!

Excellent story, was compelled to listen to the whole thing in a few short hours. Holmes and Watson are authentic and familiar and the atmosphere is straight out of The Strand. Any Holmes fan will be hooked. The reader is excellent, versatile and the delivery is sharp. He does sound a little like CP3O at times and should be a shoe in for that role should Anthony Daniels ever vacate it! Thoroughly recommended.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A good Sherlock adventure…..

The narration was good made the story easy to follow, I read the last book I had by this author really enjoyed so decided to give these audiobooks a try. I was not disappointed.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narration resembles Jeeves and Woostervrathervthan

The story is fine but the narration, for me, is not remotely authentic. Very disappointed

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Anthony Horowitz its not...

After the write ups I was looking forward to a good listen...what a disappoint. The plot looked good on the promotional blurb but it never materialised in the narrative. The story line consists of Holmes brother having all the answers before hand while Holmes runs around like some ninney shiuting Im a fool and more data...it lacks substance and maybe even a little detection work because there is very little if any. I can only compare the two attempts to emulate Sir ACD between this and Anthony Horowitz and AH comes out miles in front....maybe there was a reason these "undiscovered papers" languished so long in the archives....maybe they should have stayed there....

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6 people found this helpful