Fool's Gold (#Ira Adler 3) by Jess Faraday

Go back to sherlockian London and meet Ira Adler, trouble magnet extraordinaire.

3,5 intriguing stars

The story is initially set in London, in times of tailored suits and corsets. Ira Adler is on the way to meet his former lover and mastermind criminal Cain Goddard when an explosion turns his life upside down. Someone had planted a bomb in Goddard's house and Ira finds himself suddenly rich and grieving more than he would've imagined.
Soon, he finds out via a broken nose that the case is more dangerous than expected, but he can't help but dig deeper in order to find out the who and why. He asks his friend Andrews St. Andrew, a detective, for help. His oldest friend, Doctor Lazarus thinks a change of scenery would do Ira good and urges him to go together with his family to America where his wife's family lives.
Unnecessary to say that, when Ira decides his best friend is right and agrees to accompany them to America, trouble is a constant for the party and Ira always seems to be right in the middle of it. And, as coincidence will, the solution of the case Ira is distancing himself from seems to be thousands of miles away from London and every mile added brings him closer to finding out what happened.


I got this book as a free read from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the beginning I didn't even realise that there were two volumes previous to Fool's Gold (which is kind of stupid considering that it is written on the cover) and the author does a great job at making you not notice that fact. Honestly, I'm a bit glad that I didn't read the previous books because even though in Fool's Gold Ira and Goddard aren't together I shipped them with all my heart and if I had read a book where they actually were together I probably couldn't bear to read about Ira with someone else.
Goddard reminded me of Moriarty and the whole book I kind of just waited for him to return from the dead. Which he did.

Ira Adler is a likable character and Faraday's writing lets you understand every decision he makes. There is neither a 'omg what is he doing?!' moment nor a scene where her characters are so perfect that you doubt there existence (haha, pun intended). They are quite human and sometimes they make shitty human decisions or do foolish things, but that's what makes them real.

Even if you haven't read the first two books you can read this one without getting confused during some events because you lack background knowledge. So I can recommend this to anyone who wants the faint smell of an interesting whodunit, the taste of adventuring through a new country (at least from Ira's POV) and the overall theme of finding a new path in ones life.