The Affair of the Mysterious Letter: A Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes pastiche

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall

Captain John Wyndham has returned to Khelathra-Ven after being away with the army for several years. Rents are high, so he decides to answer an ad for a housemate. When he moves in, he discovers that his new companion is Shaharazad Haas, a renowned and powerful sorceress who’s addicted to opium. When Ms. Haas is asked to find out who is blackmailing her ex-girlfriend, Captain Wyndham tags along and starts getting involved in a case which turns into a weird and wacky adventure.

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter (2019) is a gender-bending Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Shaharazad Haas is Sherlock Holmes and Captain Wyndham, who was female when he was young, is Watson. The plot, which is quirky and whimsical, involves vampires, eldritch gods, time travel, the multiverse, a literary critic, and a shark (not the same character as the literary critic). It was sometimes hilarious and almost always silly. To my disappointment, though, the mystery was not clever or interesting and sometimes the plot really dragged. I did not find the story itself to be entertaining.

What was entertaining, though, was the tone and voice. It’s written from Wyndham’s perspective in a wordy, elevated, self-conscious style that I found appealing, especially when he tells us about his editor’s writing advice, or disagreements with his editor:

My editor suggests to me that informing you at this juncture of conversations which can only have taken place after the experiences I presently describe robs the forthcoming narrative of any sense of tension or uncertainty. I personally do not understand this complaint. You the reader must surely know that I am writing this book many years after these events. And while it is true that some popular memoirs have been penned by the deceased (Miss Evadne de Silver’s Life Amongst the Bone Cults of Lei being a particularly fine example of the genre) such texts remain a rarity and are normally composed by persons with access to, and knowledge of, powerful necromantic arts.

Despite being homosexual and transgender (which has nothing to do with the plot), Wyndham is a prude who’s obsessed with modesty and propriety:

Ms. Haas moved her mouth close to my ear. “I cannot believe I engaged in connubial activities with this gentleman. But I suppose I was very young.”

 

As a matter of record, I should add that the words “engaged,” “connubial,” “activities,” and “gentleman” were not, in actuality, used by Ms. Haas at this juncture, but I have taken some licence in representing her use of language in order to protect the sensibilities of my readers.

This particular little habit is hilarious at first but eventually becomes tiresome.

I expect that some readers will find Wyndham’s entire manner tiresome, but I thought it was mostly quite amusing. I suspect that my enjoyment of the voice has a lot to do with the narrator of the audiobook edition I listened to. Nicholas Boulton was absolutely perfect and I loved his performance. Penguin Audio is the publisher and the audiobook is 10.5 hours long. If you plan to read The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, I recommend this version.