Barb's Book Reviews: Review of "The Sherlockian: A Novel" by Graham Moore

Friday, January 5, 2024

Review of "The Sherlockian: A Novel" by Graham Moore

This dual-timeline mystery was inspired by real life events. When Sherlock Holmes' creator - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - died in 1930, some of his papers vanished. The missing items included letters, incomplete stories, and a volume of his diary - in which he was wont to record details of his life.

Example of a page from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's diary

'The Sherlockian' alternates between 2010 - when a Sherlock Holmes expert claims to have discovered the lost diary, and the late 1800s - when Arthur Conan Doyle got involved in a couple of real life mysteries.

Arthur Conan Doyle

*****

The book opens on January 5, 2010, when 29-year-old Harold White is attending his first meeting of 'The Baker Street Irregulars' - the world's preeminent organization devoted to the study of Sherlock Holmes.

Only the most worthy fans are allowed to join the Irregulars, and Harold is thrilled to have been accepted and excited to be at the society's four-day convention, being held at New York's Algonquin Hotel.

Sherlock Holmes Convention

What's most eventful about the Irregulars symposium is the announcement by long-time member Alex Cale that he found Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's missing diary. Cale is being cagy and mysterious, but promises to present the journal on January 6 - Sherlock Holmes birthday.

Unfortunately, Cale is murdered before he exhibits the diary, and it disappears once again.

Harold is present when Cale's body is discovered, and decides to investigate the crime like Sherlock Holmes would. So - before the police arrive - Harold quickly looks over the body, studies the carpet, examines the walls, and so on.

Harold discovers the word 'ELEMENTARY' scrawled on the wall in blood and deduces that the murderer must be a Sherlockian - a person familiar with the Sherlock Holmes canon. Moreover, Harold believes the killer is leaving a string of clues, which he'll follow to find the perpetrator AND the diary.

As it happens, an attractive journalist named Sarah Lindsay wants to write an article about the diary, and she decides to tag along with Harold.

Thus the pair are reminiscent of Holmes and Watson.....except that Harold fancies Sarah. 😍

Harold and Sarah aren't alone in their hunt for the journal. Other Holmes aficionados want to find it as well, as does Sebastian Conan Doyle - Arthur's great-grandson - who believes the diary rightfully belongs to him.

Sebastian offers to finance Harold's search for the journal, which takes Harold and Sarah from New York to England to the continent. The duo's lives are endangered by people following them, and there's plenty of angst and excitement.

Developments in 2010 alternate with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's activities in the 1890s, starting with his decision to 'kill off' Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls.

Sherlock Holmes struggling with Professor Moriarity at the Reichenbach Falls

Fans were devastated and angry about Holmes' demise, and Conan Doyle was lambasted.....and even assailed in the streets.

Conan Doyle was also unpopular with progressive women because he was a vocal anti-suffragist and had a decidedly backward view of women's place in the world. Thus, when a letter bomb blew up Conan Doyle's office there were plenty of suspects.....from fans of Sherlock Holmes, to angry females, to terrorists protesting Arthur's military service during the Boer War.

Arthur Conan Doyle in his military uniform

Conan Doyle reported the bombing to Scotland Yard, but found the lead Inspector to be an ineffectual boob.

Thus the writer decided to investigate the bombing incident himself, with the help of his friend Bram Stoker.....who wasn't yet famous for creating Dracula.

Bram Stoker

During Conan Doyle and Stoker's search for the bomber they became aware that a serial killer was brutally murdering women in London. Once again Scotland Yard was sluggish and impotent, so the amateur sleuths decided to go after the serial murderer as well, using Sherlockian deductive reasoning.

As was Conan Doyle's habit, he faithfully recorded everything in his diary, including particulars of his detective work. And this is the volume of the journal that's missing!!

So what happened? You'll have to read the book to find out.

The story is an entertaining take off on Sherlock-mania, with the amateur detectives in both timelines 'doing what Sherlock Holmes would do.' In addition, Graham Moore's chapter headings - most of which are quotes form Sherlock Holmes stories - add an additional fun element to the novel.

I enjoyed the book and recommend it to fans of the legendary fictional detective.

Rating: 3.5 stars

No comments:

Featured Post

The story opens in 1966, when thirty-seven year old Maddie Morgenstern Schwartz is a beautiful Jewish housewife with an attorney husband named Milton, a teenage son called Seth, and a lovely home in a toney Baltimore neighborhood. Many women of Maddie's generation would be happy with this life, but Maddie has ambitions for a career, so she moves out to follow her dreams. Living in a small apartment - and barely making ends meet - Maddie decides to report her diamond ring stolen for the insurance money. This acquaints Maddie with an attractive black cop named Ferdie, with whom she embarks on a TORRID affair. Given the racially charged times, Maddie and Ferdie's relationship is confined to Maddie's apartment save one 'date' at an Orioles game, where the duo pretend to be strangers making conversation. While Maddie is struggling financially, an 11-year-old girl named Tessie Fine goes missing from Maddie's former Baltimore neighborhood. Maddie joins the search and stumbles on Tessie's body near her old high school make-out spot. Afterwards, Maddie strikes up a correspondence with the prime suspect in Tessie's death, who's in jail, and unearths a clue about the crime. Maddie parlays this correspondence into a job at the Baltimore Star, assisting the consumer helpline columnist......

Featured Post

This book, about a VERY dangerous volcano, is a collaboration between Michael Crichton and James Patterson. In the backstory, Michael's wife Sherri explains that Michael was interested in volcanoes, and had begun a book, whose working title was 'The Black Zone', before he died. Sherri found the partial manuscript in Michael's archives, and felt the book should be completed. Sherri considered various collaborators, and when she met James Patterson, she knew she'd found the right guy. The result is 'Eruption.' ***** As the story opens, the Mauna Loa volcano - one of the five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii - is heating up, causing earth tremors, and getting ready to erupt. Volcanologist Dr. John MacGregor (Mac), head of the Hawaiian Volcano Institute, determines the volcano will explode in about five days. A volcano eruption is dangerous enough, but Mauna Loa is especially treacherous. Mac learns this when he's summoned to a meeting with some military brass, one of whom is Colonel James Briggs. Briggs takes Mac to a huge lava tube (like a cave) in Mauna Loa, which is filled with storage receptacles containing radioactive herbicides.......

Featured Post

London printing company saleswoman Sam Kemp was given a one-day gift pass to a high-end gym. Since the pass is about to expire, Sam decides to use it one morning before a series of sales calls. At the facility, there's a mix-up in the locker room, and Sam grabs a lookalike gym bag on her way out, leaving her own gym bag behind. Riding to to her first meeting with several colleagues, Sam reaches into the gym bag for her shoes, and instead of her sensible black pumps, Sam finds red Louboutin sling-backs with four inch heels. Sam can't go to a sales meeting in flip-flops, so she dons the Louboutins and finds that the sexy shoes fascinate clients and help with sales. This is important to Sam because she has a new boss, a nasty misogynist named Simon who's ALWAYS on Sam's case. Simon constantly says Sam can't do anything right and insinuates she's dispensable. Sam can't lose her job because she's currently the family's sole breadwinner. Sam's husband Phil - who recently lost his father and his job - just sits on the sofa and watches television. Phil is clinically depressed, but he refuses to take medication or get help......

Featured Post

Donald G. McNeil Jr. was a New York Times science and health reporter for twenty-five years. In that time, McNeil became an expert on pandemics, and he shares his insights in this book. The treatise is divided into four parts: Initial Reflections on Pandemics; The Tangled Roots of Pandemics; The Human Factors That Spread Pandemics; and Some Ways to Head Off Future Pandemics. 🧬 Initial Reflections on Pandemics Since it's so recent, the Covid pandemic is well-known around the globe. Many plagues have come and gone, however, most of which are not in the world's collective consciousness. McNeil is more conversant with global contagions than most, his first 'up close' experience being in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1998, at an orphanage full of HIV-positive children doomed to die. South African AIDS Orphanage Triple-therapy antiretroviral cocktails for HIV were available, but they were expensive, and South Africa couldn't afford them. There were negotiations and patent wars and so on, and in time, pharmaceutical companies were (essentially) pressured into selling the drugs to poor countries for reduced prices. McNeil observes, "The world was changing its attitude toward the dying poor." This is important for many reasons, one being that - in our interconnected world - ANY reservoir for contagious diseases is a potential threat to everyone......

Featured Post

In this 7th book in the 'Chet and Bernie' series, the detective team investigates a murder far from their home turf. ***** In the Chet and Bernie stories, Bernie Little and his hundred-plus pound dog Chet run the Little Detective Agency in Arizona. The books are narrated by Chet, whose somewhat limited vocabulary, unfamiliarity with idioms, doggie logic, and tendency to get distracted set the stage for plenty of smiles. Bernie is a West Point graduate, war veteran, former police lieutenant, and talented private detective. Chet is Bernie's invaluable partner, always ready to clamp his jaw on perps and drag them off by the pants. As the story opens, Bernie decides to visit his journalist girlfriend Suzie Sanchez, who relocated to Washington DC for a better job. In the capital, Suzie lives in the carriage house of a political insider named Lizette, who hosts fund raisers for candidates running for office. When Bernie and Chet arrive at Suzie's home, an urbane English gentleman named Eben St. John is just leaving, and he calls out 'bye love' to Suzie......

Featured Post

In this 21st book in the 'Charlie Parker' series, the sleuth investigates the disappearance of a child. This supernatural mystery thriller works fine as a standalone. When two-year-old Henry Clark disappears from his toddler bed in Portland, Maine..... .......suspicion quickly falls on Henry's mother Colleen. Colleen's husband Stephen - who was on a business trip when Henry vanished - tells the police that Colleen had post-partum depression and anger issues. When Stephen finds a blood-stained blanket in the trunk of Colleen's car, that clinches it. For her part, Colleen says she had a glass of wine, fell asleep, and woke up to find Henry gone. Colleen further claims to know nothing about the blood-stained blanket in her car, but the authorities don't believe her, and prepare to make an arrest. Colleen is represented by attorney Moxie Castin...... ......who works with private detective Charlie Parker. Colleen, who's distraught about her missing child, believes Parker will understand her plight because he lost his daughter years ago. Little Henry's disappearance galvanizes the public, and journalists, vloggers, amateur detectives, web sleuths, and would be podcasters, along with protesters of various types haunt the Clarks' neighborhood.......

Featured Post

Isaac Mizrahi, born in 1961, is probably best known as a fashion designer, and that is indeed one of his many talents. But Mizrahi is an entertainer at heart, and has been since childhood. In this memoir Mizrahi writes that seeing Stephen Sondheim's Broadway show 'Follies' at the age of nine inspired him to set up a puppet theater in the family garage. A scene from Follies Isaac constructed the stage as well as the puppets, and sewed "over the top costumes" for his animated performers. For materials, Isaac got scraps of cloth from his fashionista mother Sarah, who edited her store-bought clothes and gave Isaac the remnants. The young producer also tiptoed into his parents' bedroom when they were asleep, and sneaked cash to buy fabric and extras - like feathers and sequins - from the textile store. Isaac Mizrahi with a puppet of himself Isaac periodically put on puppet shows for the neighborhood kids. He named his puppet reviews Follies, though they were original creations - not knockoffs of the Broadway show. Mizrahi's puppetry went on through the early years of high school, when he'd schlep a mobile puppet theater to children's parties across Brooklyn, to earn spending money......

Featured Post

Each of the Sparrow women of Unity, Massachusetts has an unusual ability which manifests itself on her 13th birthday. In this book - due to a confluence of circumstances - three generations of Sparrow women find themselves living together in the family's vintage "cake house" - which has the shape of a giant wedding cake. Brought together are: - Elinor - who can detect liars; - Elinor's daughter Jenny - who can see people's dreams; - and Jenny's daughter Stella - who can see how people will die. At the beginning of the story Jenny, her husband Will, and her daughter Stella are living in Cambridge, Massachusetts when 13-year-old Stella 'sees' that a woman is going to be murdered. Stella insists her father tell the police and when the woman is killed, Will - having 'suspicious knowledge of the crime' - is arrested for the murder. Stella's parents ship her off to Unity to protect her from the real killer and Jenny soon joins her there, where they remain......

Featured Post

Patrick Stewart, born in 1940, is an English actor whose career has spanned seven decades in theater, film, television and more. Stewart is perhaps best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies. Stewart grew up in the town of Mirfield, in the north of England. Mirfield was an industrial and agricultural enclave, and most of its residents - including Patrick's family - struggled financially. Stewart's father Alfred was a decorated army officer, and his mother Gladys worked in a textile mill. Mirfield After leaving the military, Alfred Stewart had a hard time adjusting to civilian life, and he drank and beat his wife, behavior that profoundly affected Patrick and his older brother Trevor. Still, young Patrick was a tough lad. Stewart writes, "I was not a softy as a boy. I couldn't afford to be. Where I came from, if you weren't tough on the playground, you became a target for bullying." Young Patrick Stewart (right) with his mother Gladys and brother Trevor.....

Featured Post

Betty Jean (BJ), an African American hotel employee, lives in a middle-class, mixed-race neighborhood in Los Angeles with her husband Lee David, who has Alzheimer's disease. As the book opens BJ's drug-addict daughter Trinetta drops off her two school-aged sons, Luther and Ricky, 'for a few days' while she 'applies for a job'. Trinetta then takes off for Atlanta with her new guy, leaving the kids behind. BJ also has other things on her mind. Her oldest son Quentin, a wealthy chiropractor who's distanced himself from the family, has just married his fifth blonde Caucasian wife. BJ's middle son Dexter is in prison and constantly sends letters complaining about his wrongful conviction for carjacking (he did it), talking about his big plans for the future (delusional), and asking for money (which BJ doesn't have). BJ has Dexter's number though, and she lets him know it. BJ is also concerned about her two sisters: Arlene - proud of her psychology degree - is a single mother.....

Barb's Book Reviews

Friday, January 5, 2024

Review of "The Sherlockian: A Novel" by Graham Moore

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive

Netgalley

Netgalley Challenge

Goodreads

Contact Form

Netgalley

Netgalley

Blog Archive