I love the angle in which Faye approached this book; Sherlock Holmes investigates the Jack the Ripper killings. And she does a great job pulling it all together, and not without great effort - the book is well researched and even includes footnotes.

The story itself is quite atmospheric, with excellent world building. Almost disturbingly so - London was not a pretty place in that era, and Faye did not hold back with the gory details of the Ripper killings. So fair warning, this book may not suit some readers.

But what about Holmes and Watson? Happily, their characterizations were true to the source material - it felt like it could have been an actual Holmes story. The mystery itself was really well structured and while I successfully predicted one part of it, the rest had me stumped. I love when mysteries do that.

Really, I think there’s only one thing that could have changed: the pacing. The book was slow to start, and I struggled quite a bit to get into it. But after about 50 pages or so, the pacing picked up and it was smooth sailing for the rest. Overall, I definitely recommend giving Dust and Shadow a look.