Mycroft Holmes
by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,Anna Waterhouse
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Like New/As New
- ISBN 10
- 1783291532
- ISBN 13
- 9781783291533
- Seller
-
Saint Louis, Missouri, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Titan Books, September 2015. First Edition. Hardcover. Like New/As New. Dust jacket covered in protective mylar sleeve.
Reviews
On Nov 17 2015, Pkentjones said:
This book tells of an adventure of Mycroft Holmes during his early years of Service to The Crown. It presents fans of Sherlock Holmes with a new vision of Mycroft and Sherlock at a time in their lives that we have not seen before. Mycroft is young and idealistic, hoping that he will prove worthy of the trust put in him by the Government and Crown he feels represent the world of order and civilization. Sherlock is young, surly and impatient, straining to find an outlet for his energy and talents.
The story unfolds as an increasingly complex mystery. Readers are introduced to Mycroft who is engaged to the daughter of a Trinidad Plantation owner attending college in London. One of Mycroft’s friends is a half-caste black East-Indian from Trinidad who works at a Tobacco shop. This friend tells Mycroft of a recurrence of attacks on children in Trinidad by supernatural Lougarou, giant mosquito-like creatures who suck the blood from children. Word of this reaches Mycroft’s fiancée and she becomes determined to return home to deal with the situation, so Mycroft informs his superior of “tensions” in Trinidad and maneuvers him into sending Mycroft to investigate.
Mycroft and his Trinidadian friend, acting as Mycroft’s manservant, catch the first boat for Trinidad and the mysteries begin. Mycroft’s fiancée is not on board the only boat heading to Port of Spain. As the mystery becomes more complex, so also does the world Mycroft has entered. The “black” Trinidad Mycroft anticipated becomes, first “yellow” with the addition of a growing Chinese community and then “brown” with the burgeoning East Indian population. Add European “financiers” and Southern American “investors” and the pot becomes more and more confusing. This Mycroft is fully as astute as will be his later younger brother, but he is far less accustomed to giving explanations of his inferences. His companion has to rein Mycroft in frequently in order to demand explanations of things Mycroft feels are obvious.
The world in which this tale occurs is odd to 21st Century readers. China is recovering from the Opium Wars and trying to gain her footing after being raped by European business interests. Japan is undergoing the fall of the Samurai Bakafu warlords to the Meiji Restoration and the United States is recuperating from the American Civil war. This is the time of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the Carpetbaggers with ten years yet to go before the Gunfight at the OK Corral. In Europe, it is “business as usual” in the post-Napoleonic world. The Nobility continue to oppress and rob the peasants and France is the major Continental Power. England sees the rise of Prussia as an antidote to French arrogance and Russia slumbers in the face of growing protests by everyone. Italy and Germany are dreams of the next Century while Turkey dominates the Balkans.
This is the stage setting for a mystery that deepens and deepens as we watch while characters shift and fade and transform. It becomes a question of who is conning whom and all the while, Mycroft suffers and observes. In the end, we see a more familiar Mycroft and “justice” triumphs, but the cost is high and the future remains in doubt. This is a well-written and intriguing mystery with very few “Americanisms” and better grammar than I, a confirmed nitpicker, can write. It was a very pleasant surprise, a real sleeper.
Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, November, 2015
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Details
- Bookseller
- Dunaway Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 296779
- Title
- Mycroft Holmes
- Author
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,Anna Waterhouse
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- New
- Jacket Condition
- As New
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 1783291532
- ISBN 13
- 9781783291533
- Publisher
- Titan Books
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- September 2015
- Pages
- 336
Terms of Sale
Dunaway Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs after delivery if an item arrives not as described or damaged.
About the Seller
Dunaway Books
Biblio member since 2011
Saint Louis, Missouri
About Dunaway Books
Dunaway Books is an absolutely necessary stop for the bibliophile on the Grand South Grand strip. Housed within an airy, spacious former gallery, we carry an unparalleled selection of fine used, out of print and rare volumes. Upon stepping into our store, you will find aisle after aisle of scrupulously collected books treating a broad variety of subjects in depth. We keep new small-press titles by local authors or about local subjects, children's books and shelves of CDs for music lovers. There is something here for everyone. Whether you have a few hours or just a few minutes to while away, Dunaway Books is designed to be an intellectually and creatively stimulating place for the scholar, the collector, and the good old-fashioned voracious reader.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...