Book Review: Sherlock Holmes: The Missing Years

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Sherlock Holmes: The Missing Years     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Jamyang Norbu
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Sherlock Holmes
Bloomsbury, Jan 2001, $23.95, 287 pp.

The earthquake in Darjeeling, did limited damage, but took out a wall in the home of Siddarth Mukherjic. However, instead of being upset, an elated Sid sends a telegram to his friend Jamyang Norbu with one word on it: "Eureka". He had found a rusty tin box that contain a 200-page manuscript written by Sid's great-grandfather Huree Chundler Mookerjee (of Kipling's KIM fame). In it Huree discusses working with the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes in 1891 in India and Llasa, Tibet.

The account centers on Holmes investigating a murder mystery that occurred at Bombay's Taj Mahal Hotel where the bloody corpse of a worker is found. Holmes feels he is personally the target of the killer and that the victim accidentally was in the wrong place at the wrong time. With the assistance of Huree, Holmes begins to solve the case by traversing all over the Himalayas.

Elementary, my dear reader, this Holmes entry is brilliant and perhaps the best of the newly "found" case files. Like many of the neo-Holmes tales, THE MISSING YEARS captures Holmes' essence to near perfection, but what refreshes the legend is that this story provides a rare historical perspective that sends the reader into a different world. Holmes and the investigation read delightfully like Doyle, but the look at late nineteenth century Llasa and India is enchantingly Jamyang Norbu.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner