A new novel written by NBA All-Star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!Fresh out of Cambridge University, the young Mycroft Holmes is already making a name for himself in government, working for the Secretary of State for War. Yet this most British of civil servants has strong ties to the faraway island of Trinidad, the birthplace of his best friend, Cyrus Douglas, a man of African descent, and where his … and where his fiancée Georgiana Sutton was raised.
Mycroft’s comfortable existence is overturned when Douglas receives troubling reports from home. There are rumors of mysterious disappearances, strange footprints in the sand, and spirits enticing children to their deaths, their bodies found drained of blood. Upon hearing the news, Georgiana abruptly departs for Trinidad. Near panic, Mycroft convinces Douglas that they should follow her, drawing the two men into a web of dark secrets that grows more treacherous with each step they take…
Written by NBA superstar Kareem Abdul- Jabbar and screenwriter Anna Waterhouse, Mycroft Holmes reveals the untold story of Sherlock’s older brother. This harrowing adventure changed his life, and set the stage for the man Mycroft would become: founder of the famous Diogenes Club and the hidden power behind the British government.
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Kareem Abdul Jabbar and his writing partner Anna Waterhouse are not the first authors to have taken up the mantle of Mycroft Holmes’ biographer; Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, one of my favorite authors, has also penned several books about Sherlock’s older brother. Although he doesn’t appear that often in the Holmes canon, when he does, it is as an older man in the hush, hush halls of government holding secret court in the Diogenes Club, in London. Spanning the end of the Victorian Era into the twentieth century, the canon leaves much room for modern-day writers to attempt to fill some of the gaps. If you Google the collaborators, you will find interviews that explain how they worked together. The collaboration has produced a piece that works well, and stays within the existing canon while expanding upon it. Holmesian purists will appreciate that.
I learned of this book from an interview of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that was on PBS some time ago, but that I watched only a month or so ago. As a great fan of the world of the great detective, I immediately added MYCROFT HOLMES to my TBR (to-be-read) list. Abdul-Jabbar is a soft-spoken and articulate gentleman and that translates into his writing as well. Should this team decide on another such collaboration, I will certainly read it.
This tale takes place in 1870, thirty three years after Victoria ascended the throne and five years after the end of the war between the states. Mycroft Holmes is a young man of 23, recent Cambridge graduate, with his very first appointment to a position in government. His brother Sherlock still attends university. This is a time well before “A Study in Scarlet” introduced Sherlock Holmes to what was to become an adoring public.
MYCROFT HOLMES is, without a doubt, one of the best books I’ve read this year, or any other year for that matter. Although Victoria in tone, it is also a book that speaks of a world we can all recognize where man’s inhumanity to man is still too apparent. In it we can see just how history too often repeats itself in ways that should be assigned to the scrapheap of time.
If this well written narrative does not break your heart, you have none.
I have been thoroughly enjoying this series, though I started with the second book (Mycroft and Sherlock) because that was what was available at the time in our library’s ebook catalog. Then I went back to this book as the first. I’m looking forward to the third, but already sad that there are only three.
This first book features the character of Mycroft Holmes, slightly older brother to Sherlock Holmes. He has Sherlock’s profound abilities of observation and deduction but also a shrewd ability at politics and working with people. I confess I prefer Mycroft to Sherlock.
Mycroft’s friend, Cyrus Douglas, is also an incredibly sympathetic character. His age and gravitas make a perfect foil to Mycroft’s youthful impetuosity.
I like Huan as well, but the character is not as fully realized as the others. (I can’t help picturing the actor Dwayne Johnson when the authors mention his ready smile and yet his ability to sternly mother hen Mycroft into letting an acupuncturist see to his toes.)
As the story opens, we find Mycroft on a youthful jaunt to “influence” a rowing competition he has bet on. It’s not just about betting though, he is working hard to earn, and win, the money he needs to set up a home for his fiancé, Georgiana – a paragon of virtue, according to Mycroft.
Things deteriorate from there, and rather quickly. Though slavery has been abolished in England, this is still the late 1800’s and a black man such as Cyrus, traveling as an equal with a white man like Mycroft, is not acceptable to a portion of the public, especially drunken louts whose rowing team just lost.
Cyrus Douglas quick intelligence is called into action then Mycroft’s powers of observation and deduction as the two men escape the small mob. However, this is just a forerunner of the difficulty the two will find themselves in soon. A letter brings Cyrus bad news of events where he grew up. Surprisingly, it is where Georgiana grew up as well, and the news causes her to bolt for home.
Mycroft is determined to follow and Cyrus to go with him. Once aboard ship, though, there is no sign of Georgiana. Instead the duo are plagued by attacks. Will they survive the journey and what mystery awaits them in Trinidad?
The books are a fascinating combination of cerebral mystery, action, and history while holding a breadth of situation and emotion that plumbs the depths of what man does to his fellow man. I heartily recommend them.
So we all get retelling about Sherlock which makes perfect sense since he is the focus of the original stories. So I was so excited to see things from Mycroft’s perspective. This story is when Mycroft is only 23 and Sherlock is still in college. Seeing how Mycroft’s mind worked how he and Sherlock were similar and yet very different was amazing. This first book sets the stage for the Mycroft that we know later on who controls the Government.
I started and finished this book in two days. There are so many things that I want to say but I can’t due to spoilers. The synopsis tells you very very little which is making this review a hard one to write because there is just so much I can not say.
A good friend of mine gifted the second book to me and I can not wait to pick it up.
Sorry, this is such a short one and very vague but that synopsis gives you nothing lol. If you have read the book and want to talk to me or just have any specific questions please hit me up in the comments below.
“The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know”
This was a fascinating spin on Arthur Conan Doyle. Mycroft, the brother you love to hate, a representative of Victoria’s War Department, gets into the middle of the gasping end of the Triangle Trade centered on the islands of Trinidad and surrounds, focusing on the greed of those who still went after slaves [“indentured”] in hopes to line their pockets in the beginnings of oil exploration.
Mycroft IMHO has often been presented as supercilious and a braggart, but here he’s taken down a peg or to by choices he makes and stands by as his close friend Cyrus Douglas and he try to figure out the strange goings-on with Mycroft’s fiance and her false life. I actually felt BADLY for him towards the end of the story as he became much more “human” in the eyes of this author. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes time to educate about the slave trade and those who were active as well as complacent in it’s historical reach. And, with the last third of the book focused on this history, the original mystery gets lost in the pages. I’d looked forward to reading this for years after seeing the author talk about it on Jeopardy, and will read others in the series, but I can only give it a 4 star recommendation. 4/4
I am absolutely in love with this series. Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older brother and equally smart. This book delves into his younger days and mysteries all his own.
I hope Karem writes another book in this series. Incredible!