The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols

The temptation to revisit the world of Sherlock Holmes proves irresistible time and time again, and so I picked up this latest pastiche of the great detective's adventures (this author's fourth). While the use of a real-life antisemitic propaganda piece from 1905, along with other incidents and characters from history, was interesting, the way all the pieces were put together with the slightly-off revisioning of Holmes and Watson left me unconvinced. For me, the rendering of Watson's voice was too different from Doyle's, although as this adventure was purportedly from an unpublished diary that could perhaps be attributed to lack of revision and editing. In any case, even the repeated use of phrases like “You know my methods” did not do the trick to make me think I was reading a “real” Sherlock Holmes adventure.

Oddly enough, I found myself thinking this would work better and be more fun as a graphic novel. Some good visuals would take away the necessity for clumsy verbal description, and speed up the pace of the story, which drags at times.

Sub-par. There's no real mystery here. Holmes is out of character. I have no idea why the subplot between Watson and his wife. I dislike the affectation of footnoting and referring to the author's previous books. Skip it.