Holmes vs. Holmes

The incomparable Mark Sarvas delivers a thorough and insightful review of two recent novels that feature Sherlock Holmes as a character, Mitch Cullin’s A Slight Trick of the Mind and Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution.

[O]ne can’t help feel a particular stab of sympathy for Mitch Cullin, whose forthcoming novel A Slight Trick of the Mind (April 2005) which takes as its subject the declining years of Sherlock Holmes should have the grave misfortune of following into print The Final Solution, the latest offering from Pulitzer Prize winner and attention magnet Michael Chabon, [w]hose subject is the declining years of Sherlock Holmes. But as it turns out, Cullin doesn’t need our sympathy one bit he’s written the better book. He just needs our attention.

Read the whole thing here.