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Mycroft and Sherlock

by Anna Waterhouse
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem & . Titan. Oct. 2018. 336p. ISBN 9781785659256. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781785659270. M
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OrangeReviewStarWhen six Chinese males are found dead—quartered and mutilated—on London streets in 1872, 26-year-old Mycroft Holmes investigates. He is special consul to the secretary of state for war and already a major force behind government officialdom. His best friend, Cyrus Douglas, older and from Trinidad, sponsors a home for orphaned boys, one of whom dies of a drug overdose. Mycroft's younger brother Sherlock, 18 and at Cambridge, delves into the drug connection while Mycroft pursues the Chinese mystery. Each withholds vital information from the other. Sherlock plunges into many physical scrapes, but Mycroft prefers that others follow his intellectual guidance. It takes both to solve this mystery, neither fully willing to credit the other.
VERDICT Basketball legend Abdul-Jabbar is also a pro writer, having done memoirs, nonfiction, essays, children's books and, with Waterhouse, Mycroft Holmes, the precursor to this novel. Fans of Conan Doyle will appreciate the period accuracy, but a much wider audience will enjoy the intelligent treatment of race and social standing as part of a well-plotted, intriguing mystery.
Reviewed by Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale , Oct 01, 2018
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