Mycroft Holmes Author: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse Publisher: Titan Books Published In: London, England, United Kingdom Date: 2015 Pgs: 328 REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS Summary: Troubling reports are arriving from Trinidad; disappearances, odd prints in the sand, children’s bodies turning up drained of blood. The stories draw young Mycroft Holmes, his friend and Trinidad native, Cyrus Douglas, and his fiancee, Georgiana Sutton, all to Trinidad to investigate. A dark web of treachery and mysticism hides an evil phoenix beyond the lantern glow in the islands. This is the story of how Mycroft Holmes’ life was changed, how he became the founder of the Diogenes Club, and how he became a power in the British government. Genre: Adventure Crime fiction Detective Espionage Fiction Law Enforcement Mystery Why this book: I was a bit staggered when I saw Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s name on the cover and extremely intrigued. And Mycroft Holmes...doubly so. ______________________________________________________________________________ Favorite Character: Cyrus Douglas, secret tobacconist, shop owner, and Trinidad native who puts Holmes on the scent of the mystery in his home country after their winning of a big bet and a run through the streets of London escaping a beating or worse at the hands of supporters of the other sculling team’s fans via a rain of effluvia from a gang of merry women cleaning out their chamber pots by throwing their contents out of windows. All before page 30. Least Favorite Character: The racist roughs who saw it as their duty to attempt to beat down Mycroft and Cyrus because they had won bets on the other team and, probably more, that they were friends across racial boundaries in that era. I know I’m supposed to be disgusted by them by design...and I am. Georgiana Sutton, though most of her story takes place off camera, comes across as a villain of circumstance. She does evil of her own moral code and then is surprised and swept along by the consequences of those actions. When she bemoans Holmes having followed her, my thought was that without Holmes she would have wallowed in the evil that was there instead of having her moral compass, dinged though it may be, trouble her. Character I Most Identified With: I felt the old man’s feelings in the opening chapter. Very well written, chillingly even. The Feel: The opening with the old man overlooking the beach in Trinidad is creepy. I’m not a fan of the micro-deduction that takes places incessantly where every thing that moves or breathes in the story seems to be dissected by Mycroft. It promotes a feeling of there not being air in the story, room for the imagination. The scene on the beach in Trinidad which occurred outside of Holmes’ direct intervention read completely differently than the rest of the story to this point. I believe largely due to Holmes not being directly there to micro-deduce, mycro-deduce, mycroft-deduce, every single thing about it. The piling on is excessive. The villains are smacking the hell out of Douglas and Mycroft through all those who could or would help them. And “cleaning up” anyone who would stand in the breach with them or may turn evidence to them. A suspicion that there is more to Georgiana than Holmes is prepared to admit. Mycroft is a bit like a leaf in the wind through much of this story after showing himself to be well centered, focused, and determined in London, he spends the middle sections of the story after they take passage on the Sultana to Trinidad as the villains’ foil. This story is a bit like tasting something that the cook is proud of, but realizing that something, some ingredient, is missing, something that you can’t quite identify. Favorite Scene: The opening chapter, whether intentional on the author's part or not, reads like a metaphor for growing old; the monsters lurking in the shadows luring out the youth to suck away their vitality and leave them lifeless and old, the survivors left old beyond their years until they too are dead, the monster, the flow of time. Sherlock’s reaction when Mycroft announces his intention to marry Georgiana and presupposing that she was a pretty woman which though worded differently made me think of the lyric “if you wanna be happy for the rest of your life. Never make a pretty woman your wife. So from my personal point of view. Get an ugly girl to marry you.” Cracked me up. Though based on how the balance of the story begins to play out, perhaps Sherlock was right but from the wrong justification. Georgiana does appear to be something other than what she is portrayed as through Mycroft’s rose colored glasses. The scene in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. Great climax. Pacing: The pace is good, not incredible, but good. Plot Holes/Out of Character: Feel that there is a bit of marysue in the characters of Cyrus and Mycroft, but in modern literature, it is too much of a stalking horse to be able to pick that sort of thing out. So many works have that trope as part and parcel of their stories that to avoid it would mean throwing out perfectly good stories that despite that shortcoming are sometimes very good. Douglas’s description of Holmes in the bow of the boat as they sail for First Island doesn’t ring true with all that has transpired to the character. It makes for a dashing image, heroic even. But that isn’t the Mycroft Holmes who was a part of this story just two pages previously. Given time, he would no doubt have become this man, but under the circumstance and grind this plot has placed on the character, while yes he would have changed from Douglas’s London friend into something else, he should be more haunted and less robust, his bearing more taciturn. Given the character’s personality to this point, this is a large transformation in a scant spate of hours. Hmm Moments: Mycroft in the Cambridge v. Oxford pre-race at the river seems very, very much like his more famous brother. Maybe it’s genetic. When the other shoe drops as Holmes and Douglas are reviewing the scorched letters, that’s a horrid plot. The villains of the piece seem to hold all the cards throughout. Mayhaps that is why the story feels off to me. And when there is light, another blast of darkness washes over the characters. A television viewing friend of mine refers to this as “if it weren’t for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all” mirroring Hee Haw. It is a gigantic trope of fiction across all media, but in the real world if evil held all the cards to this extent, then evil would win more often than not. This trope does strain believability to a degree. More an indictment of all media than just this book, which despite the trope is well written and characterized. I do care what happens with and to these characters, which is why despite my pointing out the shortcomings, I continue reading. Casting call: Would love to see Garrett Morris portray Emanuel. Tired, grizzled, beaten by the world, not being able to lift his hand to bury one more, not able to stay anymore in a place where death holds sway. I see Emanuel as a wire thin, old man, strong, but weathered. And the lighting up with joy at Cyrus’s return to Trinidad. Mr. Morris would be perfect for the part. Idris Elba as Cyrus Douglas. This Mycroft is described as robust, but I see Mycroft is in my head as Rhys Ifans, thanks to CBS’s Elementary, cause I love Rhys, and he was great going snob to snob with Jonny Lee Miller. ______________________________________________________________________________ Last Page Sound: Love that. Author Assessment: I would give other work by these two a glance, either together or solo. Editorial Assessment: I do have a quibble or four with some of the story that could have been ironed out with a more close editing. But all in all, a good effort. Knee Jerk Reaction: glad I read it Disposition of Book: Irving Public Library, Irving, TX South Campus Dewey Decimal System: F ABD Would recommend to: genre fans ______________________________________________________________________________ (read less)

Mycroft Holmes Author: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse Publisher: Titan Books Published In: London, England, United Kingdom Date: 2015 Pgs: 328 REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS Summary: Troubling reports are arriving from Trinidad; disappearances, odd prints in the sand, children’s bodies turning up drained of blood. The stories draw young Mycroft Holmes, his friend and Trinidad native, (read more)

2.5 stars. A very good idea that should have been better executed. Nice to bring a critique of imperialism and entrenched racism to the Holmesian genre, though, and ftr I found this Mycroft to be much more engaging than almost all iterations of Sherlock.