The Angel of the Crows

By: Katherine Addison

Narrated by: Imogen Church

Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

2021 Locus Awards - Nominee

Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor, returns with The Angel of the Crows, a fantasy of alternate 1880s London, where killers stalk the night and the ultimate power is naming.

This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the audiobook you are expecting.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

©2020 Katherine Addison (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

I love the characters

It’s an imaginative retelling of some well-known stories. The story flows as one might expect if you are at all familiar with the source material, but where it shines is the characters.

I love the dynamics between the author’s version of Holmes and Watson. It has a few surprises and ultimately I enjoyed it from start to finish. The narrator is superb.

Normally I judge a book on my ability to re-listen to it later - this one will get future play time in my library.

Entertaining Supernatural twist on Sherlock-verse

One of the things I love about this author is that she takes the creativity, queerness, and woman-centered qualities of fanfiction and uses sophisticated and witty prose, and what I assume is a healthy amount of research, to incorporate them into rich and believable worlds and stories. I wouldn't have expected anyone to be able to provide a fresh take on the Sherlock Holmes characters at this point, but I think she did it well.

The narrator did a good job with voices overall, but she chose to infuse such an over-the-top amount of drama into some of the dialogue that it frequently grated on my nerves. Despite that it was an enjoyable listen, and I'd be happy to read more books in this universe.

Entertaining Holmes/Watson pastiche

Firstly, this is a Holmes/Watson pastiche, in an alternate 1880s London.

The Watson character is Dr. J.H. Doyle, MD, recently returned from Afghanistan, wounded in an encounter with a Fallen Angel, and very lucky to be alive. The damage to his leg is lasting and painful, but we will gradually learn that it's the lesser injury. Doyle has brought back another consequence of that encounter that will affect every decision he has to make, and will keep him in London, where he can lose himself in the crowd.

Under that, there's another secret, but that one, Dr. Doyle had brought with him to Afghanistan.

The Sherlock character is an Angel.

Not a Fallen Angel. Not an Angel in good standing, with a building for his Habitation and responsibility, and his name likely taken from it, such as the Angel of Scotland Yard, or the Angel of Whitehall. Not a Nameless, wandering London with little or no sense of identity or genuine, consecutive memory. No, though he was once the Angel of the Sherlock Arms, he's a bit of a rogue Angel, not Fallen, but one who, when the Sherlock Arms was torn down, took a bit of marble from the balustrade, refused to fade back into the Nameless, and kept the name of Crow that he'd almost accidentally acquired.

He also calls himself the Angel of London, taking on a certain responsibility for the safety of the city's inhabitants.

When we meet Crow and Doyle, they are both in need of a flatmate who can put up with their unavoidable eccentricities, in order to split the costs of a reasonably comfortable flat in a reasonably respectable neighborhood. You know where this is going, though the landlady's name is Mrs. Climpson.

I really thoroughly enjoyed this book. Of course a number of Holmes'Watson stories are adapted to the setting, starting with "The Sign of the Four," very little different, and gradually growing more divergent, more affected by the changed setting, where vampires and werewolves exist in a negotiated truce with humans, clairvoyance is a skill most respectable young ladies learn, and various kinds of magic users exist in varying degrees of respectability and legality.

Oh, and there are hellhounds. This turns out to be very important.

We see something of the caste system among Angels, something of the workings of vampiric clans, called "hunts," less of the workings of werewolf packs, but like vampires, werewolves can live peacefully and legally among humans. There's potential for interesting stories in which we learn a lot more about these groups, and the relations between and among them, including the political roles played by some of the higher-ranking Angels, including Whitehall. But we do see something of these things, and we are also seeing the building of the relationship between Crow and Doyle, and between the flatmates and Lestrade, Gregson, and other London police inspectors.

I'm carefully not saying anything more specific about Doyle's second secret, the one he had even before going to Afghanistan. That would be a significant spoiler, but I found it to be a really interesting twist on the tale Arthur Conan Doyle gave us. Of course, A. Conan Doyle would probably be appalled, but that's okay. I really like it.

The Jack the Ripper story is also woven through the entire book, and it's the source of much of the interaction with Lestrade. Given the time, and the prominence of Jack the Ripper even today, it could hardly be ignored.

The character development, and the changes Addison has rung on 1880s London, are well done and absorbing. Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

A Supernatural Twist on a Classic

The book is fine, I was hoping for more but I wasn’t bored or annoyed by bad writing or performance. If you’re a fan of supernatural London and not overly familiar with the classic Holmes stories give it a try. If you’re well read on Doyle’s mysteries ( ok that character name was a bit heavy handed, IYKYK) don’t read it. The twists weren’t nearly enough to keep me from feeling this was only slightly different than the originals.

So much fun!

I was a bit reluctant to download this, based on the negative reviews. But I’m so glad I didn’t let them deter me! This book was SO much fun!!

First, for all those reviewers complaining that the plots are straight from the original Sherlock Holmes stories - duh! That’s the point of these kinds of books, to take a classic and add in a twist. I suppose these same reviewers would complain that “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” was just the same plot as “Pride and Prejudice”, just with zombies added in. 🤦‍♀️ So yes, this is Sherlock Holmes with the paranormal/supernatural added in.

I absolutely LOVED this take on Sherlock and Watson, and delighted in the ways the author wove the paranormal/supernatural into the original stories. Very, very cleverly done! And there were multiple plot twists (apart from the original Sherlock plots) that took me by surprise. I say: “Well done!”

I think the narrator did a bang up job, too, with the exception of the Irish accents. She kind of missed on those. But otherwise, she did an excellent job with all the characters. I did listen at 1.2x speed, though, as at normal speed it was just too slow.

If you’re looking for something light and entertaining, this is a perfect choice!

If you like Sherlock Holmes genre, you will love this book!!

First of all I’ll just go on record as a huge fan of everything Katherine Addison writes. It’s difficult to find well written fantasy, and her books are all exceptional in writing style, character and world building. This audio book is so well narrated I’m definitely going to look for more books read by Imogene Church. The story and the world created are unique. Sherlock Holmes has been done and redone so many times, but this is one of the most original takes on the all too familiar tales. Also a very positive take on the familiar urban fantasy genre. Full of angels, vampires, hellhounds, and some werewolves, this is a Victorian London you’ll want to explore. Keep on writing this series Katherine, and I’ll keep buying these books!

Surprise take on Sherlock Holmes

Vampires, angels, werewolves, and even Hellhounds. And Jack the Ripper thrown in as well. entertaining!

absolutely brilliant retelling

desperative historical fantasy is genius... Yes lots of people know the Sherlock Holmes stories however this is with an interesting twist that brings it up to The current social environment and understanding of wishing to make everyone equal.

So. Much. Fun.

Equal parts riff on Sherlock Holmes and humor, with a bit of steampunk for added zest. I thoroughly enjoyed this story!
This is more than a retelling of Sherlock, it's a re-creation of the wonderful serial stories. There's freedom to explore the characters, motivations and setting with greater depth and imagination when you know where the story will end. I have enjoyed this method of storytelling by other notable mystery authors, and The Angel of Crows stands in good company.
Narrator is very good at making the different characters distinctive, and overall, I enjoyed the performance. Sometimes exaggerated speech patterns and emotions were distracting, but overall performance was very good. If I had my druthers (lol), I would tone down the exaggeration just a tad. Just a little bit. 🙂

Fun twist on some classics

Fantastic narration and a fun story, it was a bit of a slow burn for me at the start but as I learned more about the characters I really started enjoying it.