CRIME REVIEW: The Holmes Affair - Graham Moore

Release Date: 06/01/11

SYNOPSIS:

For over a century, the secrets of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's missing diary have lain buried. Now all that's about to change ... Victorian London : As the world mourns the demise of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes at the foot of the Reichenbach Falls, Conan Doyle has a new preoccupation, as a chance encounter sets him on the trail of a brutal killer targeting vulnerable suffragettes. Together with Bram Stoker, he roams the dark streets of Victorian London searching for clues as to what happened to the girls. Modern-day New York : Literary researcher Harold White's lifelong obsession with Sherlock Holmes turns into something far more sinister. The world's leading Doylean scholar is found murdered in his hotel room, and only Harold is familiar enough with the arcane mysteries of the Holmes novels to recognise the clues the killer has left. Clues which will lead him not only to a murderer prepared to stop at nothing, but also to the mystery of Conan Doyle's missing diary - and a secret that Conan Doyle, a hundred years earlier, risked everything to hide ...


REVIEW:

This one is a bit of a strange book as it’s a title of two tales, one set in the time of Arthur Conan Doyle, the other in the modern era as a much rumoured treasure associated with the great man is unearthed. It’s definitely interesting, it has multiple hooks and to be honest it doesn’t paper over the characters making them all sweetness and light allowing the reader to see them warts and all. Whilst it was fascinating to get the two separate stories it did feel more like two short stories that really shouldn’t have met almost as if the author didn’t have enough for one seriously big adventure.

Don’t get me wrong both had their strong points, both had their weaknesses but overall it did feel that perhaps the author should have split it into two separate books and concentrated on each separately making each a tale worthy of Holmes himself. If you want a book that will while away a few hours or one that will entertain then this will do that, if you want one that builds up a whole set of mysteries without giving itself away then there are other titles out there that might be better suited.

Finally if you want a book that plays on themes that have a certain connection to real life within a fictional world then this book does have some of those dancing within. It was definitely interesting, it definitely amused but to be honest a lot of the mystery was more than elementary with the author revealing a lot of the hints and tips of Doyles throughout which made parts a little bit to predictable.