The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

This is a collection of short stories centering around Robert and Simon, the adoptive fathers of Sam and past residents of the house prominent in [b:Spectred Isle 35118935 Spectred Isle (Green Men, #1) K.J. Charles https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498437700l/35118935.SX50.jpg 56433653]. They can be read in either order though, as I read Isle first. It opens with Robert having newly acquired a mansion from some relative that ends up being haunted. Simon, an occultist (see: ghost hunter but with powers rather than EMF receivers), is hired to help. The ghost ends up having some rather personal “unfinished business” that leads to Simon and Robert getting intimate. The rest of the stories take place with spans of time in between from Robert's, who was previously a journalist, point of view as chronicler. It's very [b:The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 3590 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1164045516l/3590.SY75.jpg 1222101] and even takes place in the same London, as the Diogenes Club and “the fat man” are mentioned and interacted with. No appearance of Sherlock and Watson, unfortunately. I really enjoy this world and find that the first (and looking like only) Green Men book and this collection of short pre-qual stories aren't enough to satisfy. I hope the author hasn't completely dropped them.

Having read this after Remnant, this is a mix of expected and unexpected. While I didn't mind the shortness of each case, I also wanted them longer. Or maybe more cases. As for the ending, whether one reads it as sad or happy (not quite the right word but will suffice for this review), it had me in tears. Like Whyborne and Griffin, I did enjoy Robert and Simon. It's just a shame there isn't more of their stories.

I love almost everything K.J. Charles writes, but I was a little disappointed in this one. The stories were interesting but too short to be deeply involving, and Robert Caldwell's self-effacing first person POV left Simon Fexinal too much of a cipher to understand his appeal. Worth the price of the book, however, for emotionally gripping “The Writing on the Wall,” which explained how the metal cartouche came to be embedded in Robert's hand (thorough readers will remember first encountering that object in the the crossover Whyborne & Griffin short story “Remnant” by K.J. Charles and Jordan L. Hawk). I don't regret buying or reading The Secret Casebook, but Robert and Simon aren't as memorable a couple as Charles' other MCs, namely Lucien Crane and Stephen Day from the Magpie series.