Mycroft Holmes
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4.1 • 160 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
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 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It turns out Sherlock isn’t the only member of the Holmes family with a knack for solving mysteries. Meet Mycroft Holmes, the legendary detective’s cunning older brother, who’s quietly making a name for himself in the British civil service. Alerted to a string of mysterious deaths far away in Trinidad—the original home of his best friend, Cyrus, and fiancée, Georgiana—Mycroft travels to the island to investigate, with Cyrus at his side. From the moment the two friends set foot on the Caribbean-bound ship, they’re thrown headfirst into a web of deadly secrets that will alter Mycroft’s future. Co-written by Anna Waterhouse and NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mycroft Holmes is a pageturner packed with the right amount of tension and plot twists. We love how the book’s endearing protagonists doggedly pursue a seemingly unsolvable crime while keeping each other in check with their jovial senses of humor. What starts as a straightforward mystery ends up packing a lot of emotional depth—it’s lighthearted historical fiction that serves up subtle, smart commentary about social-justice issues. Victorian England has never seemed so cool.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Basketball legend Abdul-Jabbar (On the Shoulders of Giants) makes his triumphant adult fiction debut with an action yarn that fills in the backstory of Sherlock Holmes's older and smarter brother, Mycroft. In 1870, the 23-year-old Mycroft, who has a reputation as a daredevil, is serving as a secretary at the War Office when word reaches London of a series of unusual deaths in Trinidad. Someone, or some thing, has been killing children and draining their blood. The locals believe the culprits are supernatural beings known as lougarou, who drain children of their blood, and douen, who leave highly unusual footprints near their victims. The tragic news stuns Mycroft's fianc e, Georgiana Sutton, who immediately sails home to Trinidad. Disobeying her request to stay behind, Mycroft follows Georgiana to Trinidad, where he must exercise his intellect and his innate diplomatic skills to solve the crimes and remain alive. Sherlockians who relish the screen adventures of Cumberbatch and Downey will be particularly entertained.
Customer Reviews
See AllI’m glad I finally read it
“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
Entertaining
Great back story on Mycroft Holmes. Enjoyable and satisfying.
Was ok
Took too long to get to the crux of the story. Started to get better once you are told the motive