December 1893: Hungry for the latest Sherlock Holmes instalment, Londoners ripped open their Strand magazines only to reel in horror. Holmes's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, had killed their hero off. London spiralled into mourning, branding Conan Doyle an assassin, and demanding an explanation. But the cryptic author said nothing. Eight years later, however, just as abruptly as he had "murdered" Holmes in "The Final Problem," Conan Doyle brought him back for a new series of adventures. Again, the author said nothing. ...
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December 1893: Hungry for the latest Sherlock Holmes instalment, Londoners ripped open their Strand magazines only to reel in horror. Holmes's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, had killed their hero off. London spiralled into mourning, branding Conan Doyle an assassin, and demanding an explanation. But the cryptic author said nothing. Eight years later, however, just as abruptly as he had "murdered" Holmes in "The Final Problem," Conan Doyle brought him back for a new series of adventures. Again, the author said nothing. After his death, the diary that would have shed light on his mysterious reasons went missing. In the decades since, it has never been found. Or has it? January 2010: When Harold White is inducted into the pre-eminent Sherlock Holmes society, the Baker Street Irregulars, he never imagines he's about to embark on the hunt for the holy grail of Holmesophiles--the missing diary. But when the world's leading Doylean scholar turns up dead in his hotel room, it is Harold--using wisdom gleaned from countless detective stories--who must take up the search, both for the diary and for the killer.
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Our neighborhood book group, the Mystery Book Club, read Sherlockian for a meeting just this week. We found the format (1900 events versus 2010 events in the ensuing chapters) choppy, to say the least. One of our members gave up and just read all the chapters pertaining to the 1900-1901 events, then went back and read all the events from modern times. We saw artificiality in the sudden bloom of romance between Harold and Sarah, and the concept that someone would commit suicide for the purpose of provoking a reaction/scandal from among Arthur Conan Doyle fans at their convention in the Algonquin in New York.
