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Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage (MYCROFT HOLMES Book 3) Kindle Edition
It is 1873, and as the economies of Europe threaten to crumble, Mycroft Holmes finds himself in service to the Crown once again. A distant relative of Queen Victoria has been slain by the Fire Four Eleven killer, a serial murderer who leaves no mark upon his victims, only a mysterious calling card. Meanwhile, Sherlock has already taken it upon himself to solve the case, as his interest in the criminal mind grows into an obsession.
Mycroft begrudgingly allows Sherlock to investigate, as Ai Lin--the woman he is still in love with--needs his aid. Her fiancé has been kidnapped, and the only man who might know his fate is a ruthless arms dealer with a reputation for killing those who cross him. Mycroft persuades his friend Cyrus Douglas to help find the young man, but Douglas himself is put in harm's way.
As Sherlock travels the country on the hunt for the Fire Four Eleven murderer, both he and Mycroft will discover that the greed of others is at the root of the evil they are trying to unearth...
Review
-Publishers Weekly Starred Review
"All the usual pleasures—blood and thunder, sibling rivalry, historical walk-ons…”
-Kirkus Reviews
"The third Mycroft tale is another winner. The Victorian setting is well drawn, the dialog rings true, the period details, both factual and fictive, support a labyrinthine plot including race and class distinctions...Highly recommended, as are its two predecessors." -Library Journal Starred Review
“The Mycroft books are notable for...creating deep characters who would have been largely ignored or nonexistent in the actual literature of the age: characters of color” - CrimeReads
“The third novel in this cunning series...just might be its best...This fast-paced installment is filled with rich and intriguing character backstories and period details that Sherlocks fans will love.” - Barnes & Noble Best New Mysteries
"Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse capture the flavor of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Victorian London and his characters to a tee." - BookPage
"Thoroughly entertaining mystery, with great appeal for Holmesians, in particular, and fans of Victorian mysteries, in general." -Booklist
“With a diverse and colorful cast of characters, and two very challenging crimes to solve, The Empty Birdcage is a delightful telling of the relationship between a pair of siblings destined for greater things, while giving some insight of why they become the way they are later in life.”
-New York Journal of Books
"The third book in this superb series again provides an elegant writing style with a captivating mystery. Don’t you love abstruse clues left by a serial killer that only geniuses like the Holmes brothers could decipher?" -Otto Penzler, editor of The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories
"Could one have ever imagined Sherlock Holmes without Watson? There is a new partnership afoot, of the pre-Watson, young and energetic Holmes brothers. This volume continues the initial pairing of Mycroft and Sherlock to our complete delight." -Michael F. Whelan, president of The Baker Street Irregulars
“Another important chapter in the secret, thrilling lives of the brothers as they become Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes! I hope we see many more from the brilliant team of Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse!”—Leslie S. Klinger, editor, New Annotated Sherlock Holmes
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse’s crackling international intrigue Mycroft & Sherlock - The Empty Birdcage re-animates Conan Doyle's world and makes it their own. Their portrait of Mycroft Holmes, his best friend Cyrus Douglas, the Trinidad born tobacco merchant whose race means he is in a kind of perennial disguise, and Mycroft’s younger brother Sherlock broadens the lens through which the world of crime is seen. Through a parallel series of mysteries that stretch from the quiet English countryside to the London docks, the landing stage for a world in violent transition, KAJ and AW bring to the foreground the voices of those whose stories have too long been footnotes and now take their place in the complex, historically vibrant page-turner.
- Walter Mosley, NY Times Best-Selling Author & Edgar Award Grandmaster Recipient
“What began as a remarkable standalone in Mycroft Holmes has become a series eagerly anticipated by not only the Sherlockian community, but lovers of well-executed historical fiction in general” - Criminal Element
“In the third adventure, MYCROFT AND SHERLOCK: The Empty Birdcage, Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse are at the top of their game” - Reviewing the Evidence
“Our authors absolutely shine in the way they hint at the canon they’re writing towards with this series” - The Frumious Consortium
"Waterhouse and Abdul-Jabbar deliver a satisfying one-two punch." - San Francisco Book Review
"Nicely done, with style and substance." - Sherlockians and Doyleans
“an impressively researched prequel...tracing Mycroft Holmes’s journey from virile young bachelor to sedentary brain in a jar remains as riveting as ever” - CrimeReads Year in Sherlock
"Brilliantly written and intricately plotted" -Ellery Queen Magazine
About the Author
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. on April 16, 1947 in New York City, New York, United States) is an American former professional basketball player and current assistant coach. Typically referred to as Lew Alcindor in his younger days, he changed his name when he converted to Islam.
A professional screenwriter and script consultant, Anna Waterhouse has worked alongside film legends to quietly repair structure and dialogue, has consulted for premium cable miniseries and basic cable series, and co-produced a feature-length documentary for Mandalay/ HBO. She was supervising producer and co-writer (with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) of the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary On the Shoulders of Giants (Netflix and Showtime), which won the “Best Documentary” NAACP Image Award and two Telly awards in 2012. She has written several how-to screenwriting seminars for The Writers Store and teaches screenwriting at Chapman University in Southern California. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTitan Books
- Publication dateSeptember 24, 2019
- File size2727 KB
Product details
- ASIN : B07MQQ12JS
- Publisher : Titan Books (September 24, 2019)
- Publication date : September 24, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 2727 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 329 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #396,965 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,506 in Cozy Culinary Mysteries
- #3,449 in Historical Mysteries (Kindle Store)
- #4,512 in Murder
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Anna Waterhouse was born in Italy. She's been married for too many years to count and has one perfect daughter and three perfect granddaughters. Besides the three Mycroft books, she has sold and/or optioned half a dozen scripts, consulted on a premium cable miniseries, a feature-length doc for HBO, and a basic cable series. She was supervising producer/co-writer of Netflix/Showtime's "On the Shoulders of Giants," which won an NAACP Image Award (best documentary) and two Tellys. She's written essays for the L.A. Times and Los Angeles Mag, and several screenwriting seminars, and she has taught screenwriting at both Chapman University and at U.S.C.
She is currently at work on a Netflix limited series with icon of screenwriting Robert Towne.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a huge Holmesian--7'2" tall, basketball's all-time leading scorer, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (our nation's highest civilian honor) which was awarded from President Obama. He writes extensively, for The Hollywood Reporter & The Guardian Newspaper and has published 15 books; Giant Steps (biography), Kareem (last year in NBA), What Color is My World (children's), Profiles in Black Courage, Brothers in Arms (military history), On the Shoulders of Giants (black history), Coach Wooden & Me (our 50-year friendship and Becoming Kareem On and Off the Court (YA). His first novel Mycroft Holmes, starring Sherlock Holmes lesser well known but far more talented older brother, was published in 2015. The Mycroft trilogy is now complete and available online.
For more information visit: KareemAbdulJabbar.com
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It's easy to fall into these books and forget the man who Mycroft Holmes becomes. Arthur Conan Doyle's Mycroft Holmes is described as a better deductionist than his brother, a portly bachelor, an antisocial who helped found the Diogenes Club where no one talks, and someone who walks the same route to work every day. Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse's Mycroft began as a sociable and fit young man, optimistic to the extent that he was engaged to be married, and one who pursues his work with enthusiasm and positivity. And it is in remembering Doyle's Mycroft and watching the tragedies, disappointments, and challenges that young Mycroft faces, we see, painful by painful step, how he becomes Doyle's Mycroft. We get to see him develop his hard shell and how that affects his loved ones and his behavior towards them, we see him become more disillusioned. If you're paying attention to all that, it's pretty depressing.
I'd love to dive into how Mycroft becomes more Sherlock-ish, on how he manages his relationship with his brother, on how he mismanages his friendship with Cyrus, but I want you to enjoy it for yourself. As with so many writers who have taken Doyle's work and built on it, Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse do justice to Doyle's books and characters, especially with regard to Sherlock's case, but take it one step further by including all the emotions that Doyle shied away from, The telling of these tales also reflects Doyle's practice of ending books when the case ends, not lingering on what happens afterwards to the characters we care for, as the case was never about them.
If you're reading this review, you probably read the first two books. If you enjoyed those, you'll enjoy this.
Two final thoughts: (1) Huan was Sherlock's first Watson. And I love that. (2) Cyrus is a black man living in a white man's world, a notable success in his original career, seeking success in a new field where success is not so easily defined, a thoughtful humanitarian, a firm believer in justice, and well-trained in martial arts. That's Kareem!
Two unrelated mysteries confront the Holmes brothers. A serial killer on the loose in England piques the interest of Sherlock, while the disappearance of his friend (and secret unrequited love) Ai Lin, has been abducted and returned to China. The Queen seeks Mycroft’s assistance in stopping the serial killer, but his priority is to assist Ai Lin, even if it means losing her forever., which works exceptionally well with Sherlock’s desire to perfect his sleuthing skills.
Other great characters have string roles in the story as well. I can’t wait to get to know them better as I read the other books in this series.
Sherlock here is the younger version of the man we have come to know. He is unsure of himself in many respects and he has yet to fill his mind with his encyclopedic fountain of knowledge. Certainly, a book that deserves to be read.