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A review by mweis
The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee, S.J. Rozan
3.0
*I received an audio review copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
The first line of this blurb on Goodreads says it’s for fans of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films and honestly yes, that. This is very Sherlockian in that the narration comes from the Watson character, who in this case is shy Chinese academic, and he’s recounting in the story of this “larger than life“ judge. There are so many hallmarks and throwbacks to the Conan Doyle books that it honestly made me want to go back and read those.
I also think this does an interesting job of showing 1920s London in a way that’s probably true or to what 1920s London looked like then what we traditionally think. Often when we see historical fiction it’s very white, but the 1920s was peak British empire so there were non-white people in the capital of the empire, so I thought this was a fun take on classic British story through that lens. That being said, I did struggle with some aspects that felt like they were too caracature-ish as writing, but might have come across less so in film. As a whole, I think it was an interesting project, but I’m not sure if it was totally memorable or if it was interesting enough for me to continue in the sequel.
The first line of this blurb on Goodreads says it’s for fans of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films and honestly yes, that. This is very Sherlockian in that the narration comes from the Watson character, who in this case is shy Chinese academic, and he’s recounting in the story of this “larger than life“ judge. There are so many hallmarks and throwbacks to the Conan Doyle books that it honestly made me want to go back and read those.
I also think this does an interesting job of showing 1920s London in a way that’s probably true or to what 1920s London looked like then what we traditionally think. Often when we see historical fiction it’s very white, but the 1920s was peak British empire so there were non-white people in the capital of the empire, so I thought this was a fun take on classic British story through that lens. That being said, I did struggle with some aspects that felt like they were too caracature-ish as writing, but might have come across less so in film. As a whole, I think it was an interesting project, but I’m not sure if it was totally memorable or if it was interesting enough for me to continue in the sequel.