“This is not the story of a great detective and his sidekick, but of two men: John Watson, a man who is missing something in his life and who finds it in Sherlock Holmes, a man who doesn’t realize he needed someone until he finds John.”
This book starts with an introduction on how the BBC series started, casting Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch into their respective rolls, and a chapter on Conan Doyle. There’s nothing new in these chapters that I haven’t heard before or that can’t be easily looked up, but it’s nice having it all in one place or for someone not familiar with Conan Doyle’s original works.

What fan will really get a kick out of is the following chapters which is basically a highlight of each episode from the first three seasons of BBC’s Sherlock. Each chapter points out different facts about the episode and how it compares with the American movie version and the original book version. It even highlights references made to the book version (in the original (“A Study in Scarlet” the note left was rache referring to the German word revenge, while in “A Study in Pink” Anderson suggested that and Sherlock called him an idiot).

Overall, this would be a nice book for any fan of the BBC show. ( )

The BBC series Sherlock became an international wonder. Placing stories in the present day introduce and re-introduce many to the wonderful tales written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Investigating SHERLOCK: The Unofficial Guide by NIKKI STAFFORD is a delight for any Sherlock series fan. It consist of 5 chapters beginning with “EVERYTHING HAD CHANGED IN 90 MINUTES” - The Genesis of Sherlock where we are introduced to the developers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatis, through the auditions and airing of the first episode. Chapters 2 and 3 are individual bios of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Chapter 4 is dedicated to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fifth chapter contains episode guides to the first three seasons of Sherlock.

The entire book is well-written and researched. However, it is the episode guides where Ms. Stafford's writing shines. Each guide interweaves an overview of the episode with behind the scenes development, nods to the original stories, analysis, notes regarding moments related to past and future episodes, public impact, special moments and even a few errors revealed. Also included with the episode guides are interviews with those who have studied Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writings and the many other television and film interpretations.
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The season three commentary was not quite as robust perhaps because it is the most recent. I look forward to a future addendum when seasons 4 and beyond are released. Hopefully with an updated season 3 perspective to tie it all together.

Special nods for the wonderful.artwork by Michel Vrana and Aleksandra Lech, publication support by the Canada Council for the Arts and special thank you to the publicist, Samantha Dobson at ecw press for sending me an Advance Reading Copy. ( )