The Holmes Affair

In the dining room of New York’s Algonquin Hotel, Harold White has just become the newest member of The Baker Street Irregulars; an elite Sherlockian society that he has labored to enter since he first read Sherlock Holmes as a teenager. Now, as its youngest member, the newly installed Princeton graduate is about to step into the mind of Sherlock Holmes because one their members has been found dead in their hotel room. The corpse belongs to a member who claimed to have found Arthur Conan Doyle’s lost diary-a journal that every Sherlockian has tried to find for generations. While examining the body and the room, Harold meets a journalist named Sarah, and together they work to solve the mystery. Along with this story is another show more mystery beginning in 1900 involving Arthur Conan Doyle, years after he killed off Sherlock Holmes. This storyline is injected between the chapters about Harold’s mystery, so the reader is quickly shuttled between the present and the past, which I personally liked. Arthur Conan Doyle teams up with his friend Bram Stoker to solve the mystery of a young woman’s murder. While all of England is still disgusted with him for killing Holmes, and Scotland Yard is just humoring him; he and Bram are pulled deeply into a dangerous and sinister mystery that the inspectors at Scotland Yard have written off as a death of a harlot in a bad neighborhood.

Great writing; I underlined quite a few lines that stood out and one of my favorites is: “Sebastian conveyed the impression that your number was already up and he was just waiting for the right moment to let you know.” The book is loaded with little gems that I know readers and writers will love. This is a book for lovers of challenging mysteries, Sherlock Holmes fans, and England past and present. 5 stars. show less

Graham Moore's first novel, The Sherlockian, is a well-researched and imaginative journey into a brief period in the life of Arthur Conan Doyle and also into the modern community that worships his most well-known creation, Sherlock Holmes.

This novel alternates chapters between the present and the past. The present day story is that of Harold White, a twenty-nine year old researcher who is inducted into the prestigious Baker Street Irregulars at their annual meeting in New York City. His dedication to Conan Doyle and deep knowledge of Sherlock Holmes is quickly put to the test when a fellow scholar is found dead after announcing he has found the single missing volume of Conan Doyle's journal. Is White up to the task of finding the now show more missing-again journal and identifying Alex Cale's murderer?

The story in the past is the account of what happened to Arthur Conan Doyle (and his friend Bram Stoker) in August 1893, when Doyle killed-off the beloved Holmes, and then from October through December of 1900, the period covered in the missing journal. What happened to the author during this time that led him to join forces with Scotland Yard and eventually resurrect Sherlock Holmes?

As is the case many times with dual setting novels, one of the narratives in this book is stronger than the other. The Victorian one is quite wonderful and I plan on picking up Daniel Stashower's biography of Conan Doyle to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. Moore did a wonderful job with the Victorian voice and the story that unfolds is really well done. It explores Conan Doyle's ambivalent feelings about his creation, his personal life and that of his friend and fellow (but unappreciated) author, Stoker, and the women's suffrage movement of the time. It also touches on the workings of Scotland Yard at the time -- a subject that really fascinates me.

And luckily, though not quite as good as the past narrative, the present one gains momentum as the story moves forward and I found myself strongly invested in Harold's plight as well. He is a sympathetic but odd character and you really hope that things work out for him. I think that Moore has a fantastic career ahead of him if he only improves from the high bar that has been set by The Sherlockian.

http://webereading.com/2010/12/new-release-sherlockian.html show less

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book, by the point I am admittedly jaded when it comes to derivative takes on Holmes, but this book is engaging and fresh throughout. In his debut novel, Moore is able to conjure up a very believable world of Sherlockians, a nice mystery, and a well-researched speculative plot involving Conan Doyle's cases. It's difficult to alternate chapters (chapters alternate between a present day mystery and the adventures of Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker), and keep the reader engaged into both parallel plots, but Moore manages it while conjuring up an acute sense of nostalgia and yearning for Sherlock Holmes and his world. Even what seems to be the obligatory female sidekick/possible love interest ends up show more being a character with more than a couple of layers. Much in the vein of Matthew Pearl, Graham Moore delivers an entertaining, informative, well-researched, and ultimately satisifying entry in the growing literary-historical-mystery-fiction. show less

Graham Moore’s first novel “The Sherlockian” is a fine work of historical fiction. Constructed via chapters alternating between a pair of murder mysteries: one in the present day at the center of a search for a missing diary of Sherlock Holmes creator, Arthur Conan Doyle; and another in set in London of 1900 (within the timeframe of the missing diary), which Conan Doyle and his friend Bram Stoker investigate. In the end, Moore skillfully brings the parallel stories together for a satisfying conclusion. I will quibble that Harold, the present day protagonist, makes a much too quick and extraordinary leap from his initial portrayal as an insecure milquetoast to an instantly bold detective. But beyond that, it all works quite well, show more and makes for an entertaining read. “The Sherlockian” clearly shows Moore’s budding talent, which would be further honed in his wonderful 2016 historical novel, “The Last Days of Night.” show less

What a brilliant mix of fact and fiction! Mixing Conan Doyle's life with his most known character and a goose chase around a lost diary, everything is bundled up in a mystery that unravels a century later. Moore does a wonderful job of characterising Doyle's life - of which I learned many fascinating facts - and constructing a compelling plot that rings true from the first to the last page. I strongly recommend this read - save yourself a good sitting: you won't want to put it down!

For me, novels with parallel narratives, one historical, one contemporary, I find myself enjoying one and just trying to get through the other, even skipping bits of the other just to keep up with the one I'm *actually* enjoying.

The Sherlockian is the rare exception. I was immediately drawn in to both narratives, the contemporary with Harold White, a young, new member of the BSI, and the historical with Arthur Conan Doyle, which eventually collide with lots of bumps, twists and turns along the way. Lots of Sherlockian easter eggs throughout, but you don't need to be a devoted Sherlock Holmes fan to "get" this book (I don't think).

This item stand out for not just juxtaposing an earlier and present date, but a modern Baker Street Irregular with some adventures of Doyle himself, The Irregular, named Harold White, is trying to solve his friends' murder, but also a missing Doyle diary, important because it represents the period during which Doyle decided to resurrect his famous detective. Harold does a fair job with Sherlock's methods in solving the murder of his fellow Sherlockian, but does not initially fare as well with finding the diary, but which he eventually does. Doyle just blunders his way through for his part. A satisfying read, even without a strong mystery.