Snake Bite is the fifth book in the Young Sherlock Holmes series. Don't start here; go back and read Death Cloud. You will need the background in the rest of the series to make sense of this one. That said, Dnake Bite takes up after Fire Storm. If you haven't read that book, stop here and go read it. Spoilers abound below.

Sherlock's adventures start aboard the Gloria Scott (no, not *that* one), sailing to China. Kidnapped and hidden aboard, the young not-willingly-a-stowaway Sherlock has much to learn as he works off his passage. More of the story give a hint as to the development of Conan Doyle's adult Holmes. Along those lines is one of Sherlock's thoughts, "Maybe the best thing to do was to make friends with a doctor—that way you would always have treatment close at hand."

I loved the mystery. The author played fair with the readers, but the exact details of how the events transpired did escape me.

While written for young adults, I suggest Snake Bite is good reading for anyone who likes Sherlock Holmes or mysteries. The proof is in the pudding -- I have already bought the next book in the series. ( )

I felt like there was an awful lot of build up, and then the ending seemed almost too easy. The plot didn't really seem to go anywhere and it doesn't seem to have much significance within the series. I'm hoping the next book, where Lane has said Sherlock returns older, wiser and sadder will be better. ( )

I wasn’t a big fan of books that didn’t seem very comic-booky like. But it was only this certain book that caught my attention and drew my head out from those “comic books.”
The book is called “Snakebite,” whose author’s name is Andrew Lane. It was originally published in September 27, 2012, and its genre is a mystery. Now I don’t mean as in vague or unclear; the book’s genre would be classified as a mystery book. Now… to clear up introductions, it’s time to see why “Snakebite” would be a great book to read, if you’re into mystery that is.

The book begins on a merchant ship called the Gloria Scott.The crew is what you’d expect from sailors back then. Among the crew of the Gloria Scott included Sherlock Holmes and his close friend, Wu Chang. While the trip from England to China was all well, one major event comes into play: A man by the name of Jacobus Arrhenius joins the Gloria Scott as a passenger to get to China. While his character doesn’t seem much, he plays a much bigger role in the story as it goes on (But I won’t spoil it!). Later, we arrive in the city of Shanghai. This is where the fun part of the plot really begins to start. We meet more characters like Cameron Mackenzie and his father, Malcolm Mackenzie. Cameron Mackenzie is a blonde boy, assuming about Sherlock’s age at the time, who saves him when Sherlock was being “mugged” by a group of greasy-hair Chinese. Cameron invites Sherlock to a dinner with him, his family, and the crew of the USS Monocracy. All was going well until one fateful day when Sherlock found Wu Chang and his wife. Wu Chang was on the ground, looking ill while his wife was begging for help. He eventually dies as Sherlock realizes Wu Chang was killed by a snake bite. Wu Chang wasn’t the only victim; Malcolm Mackenzie, Cameron’s father, also dies of the same cause. As a result from this, Sherlock, Cameron, and Wu Fung-yi, come together to find the culprit behind the murders.

The book is great and all, but there’s just some problems with it that seem to draw attention… The first flaw is that it doesn’t seem to capture the atmosphere of Shanghai well. But that’s probably because it somewhat explains the atmosphere as you go along instead of explaining it as we enter Shanghai. Another flaw is that the book is part of a series of young Sherlock. Snakebite is the 5th book in the series (Which I haven’t read), so if you jump into this book first, you might be lost. But since I’ve never read the previous books, this flaw is a little biased. Regardless of the flaws, there is a good chunk of characters, main character or not, that you remember.

I admire this book for being a captivating read. You just can’t stop reading this masterpiece of a mystery book. It doesn’t end there though. While I did say it may be a flaw for it being a series so you may get lost, you can get an opportunity to read the other books in the series to keep you occupied for a while. Well, what are you waiting for? Go read it! ( )

Another wonderful entry in the early life of Sherlock Holmes series. Sherlock has been kidnapped and placed on a ship going to China. In his adventures there he solves murders, prevents a war between China and England and learns martial arts. Lane is carefully weaving the skill of the adult Holmes into these stories. Great series for Holmes' fans. ( )

This 5th adventure of a teen-aged Sherlock Holmes begins with him on a ship bound for China. He was abducted, drugged, and left on the ship before it sailed. Sherlock is adapting pretty well to his new life and learning lots of things. Through the efforts of the ship's cook Wu Cheng, Sherlock is learning both Cantonese and T'ai chi ch'uan - his first martial art. He misses his brother, his teacher and his friends Matty and Virginia but is making the best of his situation.

The action picks up when Mr. Arrhenius - a passenger with a weird skin condition - boards the ship and when the ship is attacked by pirates in the China Sea. Things get even more intense when they reach Shanghai and his friend Wu Cheng dies of an unexpected and mysterious snake bite. Sherlock has met and been befriended by a young American living with his parents in Shanghai. When his friend Cameron's father also dies from a mysterious snake bite, Sherlock, Cameron and Wu Cheng's son Wu Fung-Yi band together to solve the puzzle and stop an act that could lead to war between China and the United States.

I really enjoy this series because I like finding out how the Sherlock Holmes of the Conan Doyle series came to be. The one difference that I have noted in these novels is that the young Sherlock still knows how to make and keep friends. Somehow, he has lost that ability in the Conan Doyle novels. Maybe the disappointment at the end of this novel is a contributing factor in his disillusionment with other people.

Young readers will enjoy the adventure and should be eager to read the Sherlock Holmes novels by Conan Doyle to learn about what Sherlock did as an adult. ( )