Sherlock Holmes, the Missing Years: Timbuktu
Presumed dead between 1891 and 1894, Sherlock Holmes was actually engaged in international intrigue across Europe and North Africa in this well-researched novel. At the request of an Italian scholar, Holmes travels to Venice. Then, with the apparent sanction of the Vatican, he moves undercover to Morocco searching for an ancient document holding the answer to a world-changing, mysterious secret. He is eventually joined by Dr. Watson, and the two are shadowed by a dangerous secret society which both suspect is being manipulated by Holmes’s nemesis, Professor Moriarty.
The historical figures of Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta figure in the hunt, as the two journey perilously in the company of stalwart and noble Tuaregs through the Sahara to Timbuktu and beyond. They face natural and seemingly supernatural menaces along the way until the surprise ending dramatically provides the answer.
The novel has occasional shifts in narrative voice and many exotic and obscure personal and place names. This may make for difficult reading, but the well-described geographic and demographic tableaus and solid story make up for it. A good read in the proper Holmesian tradition.
