This novel had all the elements of a great urban fantasy: a cast of colorful characters (the Menagerie) including a vampire, a shapeshifter and a demon, led by a familiar yet newly interpreted figure – Arthur Conan Doyle; an apocalypse complete with a downpour of frogs, zombies and bloody fog; a wicked faerie, goblins and an uber powerful wizard sealed in crystal; and a totally clueless humanity. Reminded me of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with a fantasy element. And I have really enjoyed Christopher Golden’s work before. However, something didn’t meld right in this novel. It took me several days to finish the book because I kept putting it down. I’m not sure if this is a result of two authors working the story, or not.

The characters were great, and well crafted. I like the idea of Doyle as a powerful wizard, with an equally powerful ego, watching over humanity. I completely loved the character of Eve (yes, THAT Eve) who is the mother of all vampires. The goblin squire added a lot of humor and was very likeable. And how cool that he can travel through shadows? Clay was a mystery I’d love to unravel. There was a lot of witty, clever dialog amongst them all. I think the problem was the plot. Despite what seemed like a lot of action, the book plodded along. Doyle is searching for the world’s most powerful wizard, Sweetblood, who locked himself away so others wouldn’t try to use his power for evil. Doyle needs to find him to stop a coming apocalypse. Someone else is searching for Sweetblood, an evil fey princess. She wants to release The Nimble Man – a mysterious menace that isn’t even mentioned until 2/3 of the way through the book, despite being the title! – and needs Sweetblood. Guess how she finds him? That’s the plot in a nutshell. We find out the real danger comes later, now that Sweetblood is free, so this book almost felt like a set-up for the real novel to come later.

Though I can’t pinpoint exactly what went wrong, I like the characters enough that I’ll try the next book in the series. If you are looking for new dark or urban fantasy, this is worthwhile. It just didn’t satisfy like I hoped. ( )

A fun book with a nice mix of characters including Eve (as in Adam and eve) who is a vampire now) and Conan Dolye (as in the creator of Sherlock Holmes) who is a wizard ( )