The Curious Case of 221B - Partha Basu

My fascination with Sherlock Holmes refuses to die with the Canon (the fifty-six short stories and four Sherlock Holmes novels written by Conan Doyle). So I turn to this "brilliant retelling that turns the Holmesian canon on its head, even as it adds to it".

The book starts with Jit's story in Deogar, a small town near Calcutta. Jit, a young man, stumbles upon some letters and notebooks addressed to his father, penned in secret by Dr.Watson. The notebooks divulge Holmes’ failures and his fallacious theories regarding some of the most illustrious cases. Watson's narratives go on to elucidate how Holmes committed a 'Blunder in Bohemia' rather than preventing a 'Scandal in Bohemia'! They talk about the 'Reappearance of Frances Carfax', the 'Tale of the sad cyclist' and the 'Judgement at Abbey Grange', among other accounts.

The narratives are laced with Emma Hudson's synopses of the original cases to make it easier to comprehend for those who haven't read the Canon. However, those already familiar with the original work will derive much more pleasure from the book for the feeling of déjà vu that it provides every now and then.

Although the stories lack the powerful element of drama so peculiar to the original stories, they make one ruminate whether the solutions to the original cases were really as 'elementary' as Holmes made them out to be.

Read the book if you are one of those who always wanted Watson to have some share of the limelight enjoyed by Holmes.

Don't read it if the purist in you can't see Holmes being defeated in his own game or if you want to retain that legendary image of the detective in your mind forever!