But Moore’s affection for the genre and his good-natured self-awareness ground what might otherwise have been a preposterous setup.ĢIf “The Sherlockian” is determined to be a bestseller, Baker Street Irregular(Arkham, $39.95), by Jon Lellenberg, is equally forceful about avoiding mainstream conventions. The wrap-up is too abrupt, and the answer to the Edwardian mystery is deflating. Bram Stoker, unable to interest the masses in “some bloodsucking count from the Continent,” gets drafted as his reluctant Watson. The novel jumps between Harold’s investigation and one in 1901, when Conan Doyle tries to solve the murder of a young woman with a three-headed crow tattooed on her leg. (Moore, the son of Susan Sher, Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, based “The Sherlockian” on the death of Holmes scholar Richard Lancelyn Green, who was found strangled in 2004 after claiming to have located papers missing from Conan Doyle’s estate.) A pretty reporter volunteers as Harold’s Watson. The newest Irregular, Harold White, who wore his deerstalker to his college graduation and his first job interview, is determined to crack the case. Who plans a murder like this? “Someone who’s read way too many mysteries,” an observer notes. The word “Elementary” is scrawled in blood at the scene.

Flash forward to 2010: A man who claims to have found that lost journal is murdered at the annual Sherlock Holmes convention of the Baker Street Irregulars. But the main action of Moore’s first novel takes place eight years later it has to do with “the last great mystery of Arthur Conan Doyle” - a missing journal covering the months just before he unexpectedly resurrected Holmes after sending his creation plummeting to his death over those falls. It’s 1893, and Arthur Conan Doyle is determined to rid himself of the man plaguing his life: Sherlock Holmes. Certain conventions must be observed: Someone will say, “Elementary,” and someone else will say “The game’s afoot!”ġ The Sherlockian (Twelve, $24.99), by Graham Moore, opens with a man plotting murder near Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. This winter, three new mysteries offer them a chance to pick up the magnifying glass once again. Agatha Christie sold an awful lot of books, but you don’t see hordes of women wielding knitting needles descending on English villages to pretend that Miss Marple really exists (because that would just be silly). Heck, ditch the hat and give him a nicotine patch, as in the terrific and updated BBC series, and Sherlock Holmes is still instantly recognizable. Next to Mickey Mouse and Batman, he may have the world’s most identifiable silhouette: deerstalker cap on head, pipe in mouth.

The sherlockian by graham moore