Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Fantasy

THE AFFAIR OF THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER

Alexis Hall

In this charming, witty, and weird fantasy novel, Alexis Hall pays homage to Sherlock Holmes with a new twist on those renowned characters.

Upon returning to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years fighting a war in another universe, Captain John Wyndham finds himself looking for somewhere to live, and expediency forces him to take lodgings at 137b Martyrs Walk. His new housemate is Miss Shaharazad Haas, a consulting sorceress of mercurial temperament and dark reputation.

When Miss Haas is enlisted to solve a case of blackmail against one of her former lovers, Miss Eirene Viola, Captain Wyndham finds himself drawn into a mystery that leads him from the salons of the literary set to the drowned back-alleys of Ven and even to a prison cell in lost Carcosa. Along the way he is beset by criminals, menaced by pirates, molested by vampires, almost devoured by mad gods, and called upon to punch a shark.

But the further the companions go in pursuit of the elusive blackmailer, the more impossible the case appears. Then again, in Khelathra-Ven reality is flexible, and the impossible is Miss Haas' stock-in-trade.

Alexis Hall is a pile of threadbare hats and used teacups given a semblance of life by forbidden sorcery. He has a degree in very hard sums from a university that should, by all rights, be fictional.

Available products
Book Published 2019-06-18 by Ace Trade
Book Published 2019-06-18 by Ace Trade

Comments

Extraordinarily imaginative. This is the most fun I've had between two covers in a while!

...It's a Sherlock Holmes fantasy with a dash of horror and steampunk, but Hall doesn't stop there. His approach is to expand the good detective's universe to include basically everything under the genre sun, and to revel in the sheer scale of creative possibility. The end result is a fine Holmesian riff, and an even finer fantasy romp involving magic, mad mind-eating gods, vampires, and several million other things, all delightful. Read more...

It's di cult to express my delight in The A air of the Mysterious Letter without falling back on semicoherent exclamations that John Wyndham would want to discreetly summarize in gentler language. This book is so far up my alley that I discovered new, non-euclidean corners of the alley that I didn't previously know existed. The world has heretofore su ered from a sad lack of queer consulting sorceresses, prudish yet romantic Azathoth cultists, existentially surreal urban planning, and postcolonial Carcosan politics.

I haven't been so enchanted and delighted by a book in years. It's like the literary equivalent of being wrapped in a blanket and being driven in a horse-drawn carriage through a magical park lled with the most amazing things happening all around, and feeling safe and loved all the way through. A sheer delight from start to nish, and the most perfect blend of gentle humor, wild creativity, and love for the feel of Sherlock Holmes.

The A air of the Mysterious Letter is a witty, enjoyable, extravagantly imagined slant on the Sherlock Holmes canon. Hall nails the Holmes- ian aesthetic in marvelously amusing ways while taking us on an ex- tended romp through a wild range of alternate universes with a bizarre cast of characters. Don't miss this fun, queer, clever intrigue!

I really enjoyed this book. It was absolutely delightful, like a chocolate box, full of unexpected and brilliant references, sparklingly witty.

This zany queer and fantastical pastiche of the Sherlock Holmes stories froths with magic and humor. ... This is a fun riff on canonical works of fantasy and detection.