I chose to read this book because I love Sherlock Holmes and this was a story about a fellow fan who gets caught up in playing detective in a murder mystery. The twist is that there are actually two storylines, the primary, set in 2010, and a secondary storyline revolving around Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, set in 1900. The premise is pretty cool, but the execution was sloppy. The author chose to float back and forth between the two timelines with alternating chapters and it was very difficult to get into the flow of either one.
I also did not appreciate some of the language - it was quite disrespectful to women (and I know he meant it for shock value to accentuate one of his plotlines), but it was jarring and distracting and distasteful. But my biggest problem with the book was how the author chose to end the Doyle storyline... and I won't reveal any details but this probably deserves a *spoiler alert* anyway. So, here goes... I feel that with historical fiction any author has a delicate line to walk when they choose to write about a real person. The path Mr. Moore took with Mr. Doyle was difficult to read and I think if I was one of his descendants I might be pretty upset with the light in which his character was painted.
I can't say I would recommend this book to anyone.
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