Sometimes an author lucks into a great story. For a mystery writer, a real live mystery is a great find. But when you have a long standing mystery that appears to be solved, but it turns into yet another mystery, then you have the makings of a great story. And when the mystery involves a great literary character such as Sherlock Holmes, then it’s calling out for a novel. Graham Moore took a real mystery and was able to turn it into The Sherlockian with the only changes needed is an ending. So, what is our Sherlock Holmes mystery?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle committed a murder in 1893. He killed off his alter-ego and best known character Sherlock Holmes. Then in 1900, he brought him back. After a well documented hatred for how Holmes had taken over his life, why did he bring him back? This is a central mystery in Doyle’s life and strangely enough no one knows the answer. It is strange because Doyle was a compulsive diarist, but his diaries from this time frame disappeared a few years after his death and have been missing ever since. In 2004, Richard Lancelyn Green announced that he had found the missing papers and a distant Doyle relative was trying to auction it off (against the wishes of the Doyle estate). A huge brew-ha ensued and Green started telling people that he was being followed by an American. Then, one day, his sister called him and there was an American voice on his answering machine. She went over and found him dead. After a botched investigation, his death was left unanswered with the leading suspicion being that he committed suicide and tried to blame someone else (similar to the The Problem Of Thor Bridge). Graham Moore has adapted this story in The Sherlockian.

The story is told in alternating time lines. One time line follows Arthur Conan Doyle from the death of Sherlock Holmes until he is brought back. The other time line follows Harold White, who was just inducted into the Baker Street Irregulars (the leading Sherlock Holmes society). Harold is at his first Baker Street Irregulars meeting when a leading Sherlock Holmes researcher, Alex Cale, announces that he has found the missing Holmes diary. But, before he can present his research on the diary, he is found dead with the word “Elementary” written in blood along the wall. White and an ex-journalist named Sarah decide to follow the clues and see if they can solve the mystery.

Back in the late 1890s, Holmes is going along with his close friend Bram Stoker (yes, that Bram Stoker who is a little sad that his Count will soon be forgotten unlike Sherlock Holmes). When a bomb is mailed to Doyle’s house, he decides that Scotland Yard is incompetent and that he will solve the story himself. Along with Stoker (who is more familiar with the less savory areas of London), Doyle starts investigating and finds himself closer and closer to a rouge group of suffragists who are being murdered and are linked to his bomb.

Moore does a good job on both story lines and loosely ties them together at the end, but it’s almost as if there are two books going on at the same time for no relationship to each other. The biggest stretches of disbelief are that a detective writer and a detective reader are both able to investigate cases better than police are. The Doyle/Stoker storyline seems more believable of the two. I just have a hard time believing that Harold and his partner Sarah (who has a nice twist halfway through) would be able to not only get the access they did, but make as much progress as they did. The beginning of the Harold/Sarah storyline is based on the Richard Lancelyn Green death, but the ending is pure fiction. The Holmes storyline is somewhat more interesting and I enjoy the Doyle/Stoker partnership. Overall it’s an uneven story that is written decently. The characterizations are thin with the plot carrying most of the heavy lifting in the story. Mildly recommended.