A Study in Emerald

by Neil Gaiman Narrated by Neil Gaiman

Overview

A mysterious circus terrifies an audience for one extraordinary performance before disappearing into the night, taking one of the spectators along with it . . . In a novella set two years after the events of American Gods, Shadow pays a visit to an ancient Scottish mansion, and finds himself trapped in a game of murder and monsters . . . In a Hugo Award-winning short story set in a strangely altered Victorian England, the great detective Sherlock Holmes must solve a most unsettling royal murder . . . Two teenage boys crash a party and meet the girls of their dreams-and nightmares . . . In a Locus Award-winning tale, the members of an exclusive epicurean club lament that they've eaten everything that can be eaten, with the exception of a legendary, rare, and exceedingly dangerous Egyptian bird . . . Such marvelous creations and more-including a short story set in the world of The Matrix, and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction-can be found in this extraordinary collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his terrifyingly entertaining dark sense of humor. By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, Fragile Things is a gift of literary enchantment from one of the most unique writers of our time.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

07/16/2018
The murder of a monstrous German royal sets a brilliant detective and his new partner upon the trail of an equally cunning adversary in this chilling adaptation of Gaiman’s 2003 short story. In this alternate history, set in a Lovecraftian version of 19th-century England, the Old Ones returned 700 years ago to claim the Earth and its people, bestowing both cruelties and mercies alike, and humans have lived complacently under their rule ever since. When one of the Old Ones is gruesomely butchered, the tentacled Queen enlists the Baker Street investigators to track down the killers, but they find that there is a larger scheme at play. The artwork is on point, with vivid period atmosphere and details shifting to eerie otherworldly scenes. At first, this graphic novel kicks off like a typical Sherlock Holmes episode that just happens to have elements from the Cthulhu mythos. But a stunning twist late in the game proves a shocker, upending the familiar plotting and character expectations. The ending makes what would otherwise be standard fare stand out—leaving the reader retreading the plot with a sense of horror that lingers long after the close. (July)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170211395
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/02/2007
Edition description:	Unabridged

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