Holmes Of the Raj

This book was produced in a limited edition by hand processes. It is gorgeous, with a cloth binding edged in brocade and its covers printed in gold. Inside, a variety of scripts and inks are used and it is extensively footnoted. Careful examination reveals small flaws that reflect the handwork origin of the book. Like the book, the author is also extensively decorated. He has worked actively for peace and the well-being of the poor and neglected all around the world and has been honored for that work by governments and organizations. His curriculum vitae are enviable, varied and rich, as is his writing.Although this book has Holmes in the title, it is really a saga of Dr. Watson and India. It chronicles two trips made by Holmes and Watson to India at the request of the British Government, but, as it is narrated by Watson, it reflects the Doctor’s view of these trips. Holmes figures in the six stories included in the narrative, but the true star is India itself and Watson relates its wonders with all of the awe he normally uses to describe Holmes’ exploits. The reader is brought to see that India is not a country, but rather a true sub-continent similar to Europe, with widely varying peoples, cultures, languages and climates, as well as all of the same kinds of sectional hatreds and religious conficts. The book is unbelievably rich and sumptuous. It assaults the senses and overwhelms the reader with the flavors, sights sounds and, most of all, the peoples of India. In some ways, it is an overdose. I was unable to read the stories in one or even in two sittings. I had to space out my reading, to “clear my palate” as it were, between courses. The “fare” is rich and spiced with exotic elements. The people are novel, eccentric, brilliant, obtuse, opinionated and extremely human, from the Viceroy to the punkh wallah. The sense of History is inescapable; one is surrounded by 5,000 years of cruelty, customs, courage, and religious conflict.For Sherlockians, this is not a book to be read with Canon in hand. I stressed out my copy of “The Times Between the Cases” so frequently that I had to give it a long rest. The conflicts between this book and the Canon are several and severe. The familiar Holmes of Baker Street has been replaced by a more humane and less judgmental person who is interesting and amusing, but who is not the familiar Great Detective. The Good Doctor remains himself, the very best of Victorian gentlemanly virtues, but he is faced with problems and situations that try him as he never was tried in the Canonical tales.As a set of Sherlockian pastiches, this book is better than most, but not really satisfying. As a guide to India during The Raj and to the effects of the Indian Policies of The British Government, it is superb. It is much more interesting than a history text and more fascinating than any work on Sociology. Indeed, the author is such a name-dropper that the reader is always on the look-out for the next important person to be met. The extensive footnotes spoil some of the fun by explaining many of the more arcane references. The reader can, however, cheat by refusing to read them and keep trying to guess just who each historical personage is and why they are famous. Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, September 2006.