Mr Holmes
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Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
Mr Holmes
Buy Now for £14.99
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Narrated by:
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Simon Jones
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By:
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Mitch Cullin
About this listen
Formally published as A Slight Trick of the Mind, now a major motion picture.
"Why'd she come here? Why'd she come to you?" A cloud passed over the sun, casting a long shadow across the gardens. "Hope, I suspect," said Holmes. "It seems I am known for discovering answers when events appear desperate."
It is 1947, and the long-retired Sherlock Holmes, now 93, lives in a remote Sussex farmhouse with his housekeeper and her young son. He tends to his bees, writes in his journal, and grapples with the diminishing powers of his mind.
But in the twilight of his life, as people continue to look to him for answers, Holmes revisits a case that may provide him with answers of his own to questions he didn't even know he was asking - about life, about love, and about the limits of the mind's ability to know.
©2014 Mitch Cullin (P)2014 Canongate Books LtdListeners also enjoyed...
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
no, not the Sherlock Holmes I have come to know and love.What could Mitch Cullin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
unfortunately not a lot. possibly cut out the ridiculous travels for a 93 year old.Have you listened to any of Simon Jones’s other performances? How does this one compare?
no, but I would not mind listening to him again.Was Mr Holmes worth the listening time?
no, I did try to keep going but gave up after an hour or so.Any additional comments?
I found the story lines boring and trying to imagine Holmes going to Japan at his age in the 1950's difficult to believe. the original stories by Conan Doyle cannot be beaten for me.Disappointed
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fantastic story
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enjoyed it
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What did you like best about Mr Holmes? What did you like least?
I liked the idea that Holmes is suffering from dementia and his fragmented mind is illustrated by a fragmented narrative, but the story is very repetitive and the other characters aren't interesting or likeable enough to grip you, unfortunately. The author really went some way into making Sherlock Holmes as unlikeable as possible, his age emphasising all his worst traits.Would you ever listen to anything by Mitch Cullin again?
Probably not. There were some interesting tidbits, especially about Japan, Hiroshima, and bees, which showed the efforts of his research, but as a narrative this was one long yawn-fest, I'm very sorry to say. Initially, with all the glass armonica business and the grief-stricken Edwardian couple, I was intrigued (and I feel the novel would have been far more interesting had it stuck to this idea of an old, unsolved case), but that storyline soon trailed off and ultimately felt tacked on to a novel which seemed more interested in the follies of memory and ageing - and unsympathetically so.What didn’t you like about Simon Jones’s performance?
He nearly sent me to sleep a few times as there was so little range to his delivery. All quite monotonous.Did Mr Holmes inspire you to do anything?
I had been eager to read the Conan Doyle stories, but sadly I now feel I need a good break from Sherlock Holmes for a while!Any additional comments?
I can only imagine the film makes a lot of changes to this source material, otherwise it would surely be very boring and disjointed.Not good
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Would you listen to Mr Holmes again? Why?
Possibly. Maybe after watching the film.Any additional comments?
Spoilers. This is actually 3 stories in one; Holmes, now in retirement & with faculties failing, recounts an adventure from his Baker Street days with an unhappy ending; he visits Japan just after WWII at the invitation of someone who believes Holmes has a connection with his estranged father; his housekeeper's son has a fatal accident. All of these tales are told in a reflective way, from the viewpoint of old age; none of them are really mysteries, all are melancholy in tone. It is a long way from being the worst post Conan-Doyle Holmes book, but there is something slightly unsatisfactory about the whole.A melanchony mystery
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