A review by jcpdiesel21
The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

3.0

Given my limited exposure to Sherlock Holmes that includes only the Robert Downey Jr. movie from a few years ago and House, I wasn't sure whether this book would stand well on its own or my lack of knowledge would hinder my enjoyment. For me, the book is fine and has many clever elements, but didn't completely come together like I wanted it to. At the beginning I was immediately intrigued by the events of the present-day storyline and liked how Harold used his vast knowledge of the Holmes oeuvre to decipher the complex clues along the way. However, I was dissatisfied with how this storyline played out in the end and found a twist involving a character to be rather obvious. On the flip side, I was a bit bored with what was happening with Holmes and his case in 1901 at first and the language that Moore used to emulate this time period was tedious at times. However, this part of the book gathered my interest up to a satisfying conclusion. Learning about the intricacies of the devoted Sherlockians was fun, but I would have liked to know more about main character Harold, who sadly remained two-dimensional throughout. I did appreciate the informative note from the author at the end about what in the book was fact and fiction as well as the research that went into the novel.