Review by Molly Chenault

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison, Tor Books, June 2020, $27.99.

In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent. Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London, too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows.

Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor, delights fans with a new and imaginative retelling of Sherlock Holmes. The story is similar, but far different, from the popular stories you may know. Although many names and details have been changed (Dr. Watson is now Dr. Doyle, etc.), I enjoyed spotting all of the little nods to the original.

I found it fairly easy to follow some of the more fantastical rules of the setting, explained through the straight forward view of Dr. Doyle. One of my favorite parts was how Addison portrayed Crow (Sherlock) as an enthusiastic purveyor of mysteries whose social ineptness comes from being an angel and not a person instead of just being an arrogant and insufferable human being.

Although at times I felt like some things were glossed over, as will happen when you include several cases in one novel, on the whole I enjoyed The Angel of the Crows as a fun change of pace that subverted my expectations.

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