Sherlock Holmes in Japan by Vasudev Murthy



One can appreciate the impulse to add to the Holmesian corpus, but the absence of any real mystery-solving of ingenuity leaves the reader feeling a little unsatisfied. Mr Murthy has seasoned the book with a significant amount of diplomatic intrigue, quite like A.C.D. himself used to do on occasion; but imho the book would have been served better if the covert cloak & dagger stuff had been left to add flavour to a conundrum, rather than letting it take over the narrative as it does. There is also a meta-narrative in the novel involving its editor, which starts out being a curiosity, but soon becomes something of an intrusion. Perhaps keeping the stereotype of the habitually misogynist 19th century narrator in mind, the author makes much of his editor's youth and femininity... and feels the need to drum this instance of self-conscious attention to historicity on his part so often into the reader's head that after a point it becomes quite exasperating. Makes one wonder why the lady in question editing the book tolerated it frankly. She should have gone snip-snip with far more assertiveness. Imo, Jamyang Norbu's The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes remains a rather more engaging contribution to Holmesiana far as reports of the Lost Years from India go.



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