The Sherlockian
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In December 1893, Londoners eagerly opened their Strand magazines in anticipation of Sherlock Holmes's next adventure, only to find the unthinkable: his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, had killed their hero. London spiralled into mourning. Crowds sported black arm bands in grief and railed against Conan Doyle as his assassin.
Then in 1901, just as abruptly as the author "murdered" Holmes in "The Final Problem,” he resurrected him. Though he kept detailed diaries of his days and work, Conan Doyle never explained this sudden change of heart. After his death, it was discovered that one of his journals from the interim period was missing, and it has never been found. Or has it?
When literary researcher Harold White is inducted into the pre-eminent Sherlock Holmes enthusiast society, The Baker Street Irregulars, he never imagines he is about to be thrust into the hunt for the holy grail of Sherlockians: the missing diary. But when the world's leading Doylean scholar is found murdered in his hotel room, it is Harold, using wisdom and methods gleaned from countless detective stories, who takes up the search, both for the diary and the killer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moore's debut cleverly sets an accidental investigator on the track of an old document within the world of Sherlock Holmes buffs, though the results may please those with only a superficial knowledge of the great detective. In January 2010, Harold White, "a freelance literary researcher" who helps defend Hollywood studios against claims of copyright infringement, is inducted into the pre-eminent Sherlockian society, the Baker Street Irregulars, at their annual New York City dinner. During the festivities, scholar Alex Cale plans to present a long-lost diary penned by Arthur Conan Doyle that he's discovered, but someone strangles Cale before he can do so. Doyle's great-grandson hires White to solve the murder and trace the diary, which is missing from Cale's hotel room. Chapters alternate between White's amateur sleuthing in Europe and Doyle's own account of his search for a serial killer, aided by Dracula creator Bram Stoker. Admirers of similar efforts by Anthony Boucher, H. Paul Jeffers, and Arthur Lewis will find this falls short of their standard.
