Book review: Sherlock Holmes in Japan by Vasudev Murthy

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Sherlock Holmes in Japan
Vasudev Murthy
2 stars

It is not a surprise for anyone that I absolutely love Sherlock Holmes (and that I am not so secretly Moriarty) and that I love reading pastiches about the consulting detective. So it was with my heart bursting of joy that I started reading “Sherlock Holmes in Japan”. The book brings us the story of the “missing years” of the famous detective, presenting a possibility as to what he could possibly be doing during the years he was supposedly “dead”. 
I liked the concept of this book a lot. What happened to Sherlock Holmes between Reichenbach and his rather dramatic reencounter with Watson is something that I’ve always wished Conan Doyle would have written about. We don’t have Doyle, but now we have a pastiche. Good enough for me. 
The beginning of this book was very interesting. Watson receives a letter from his dead friend, urging him to go to Japan, where very important events were unfolding. Then, for me, things go downhill. The long explanations of boarding and disembarking were too much and could have been using to furthering the plot. Talking about plot, it was too uneven and, admittedly, rather boring. 
The big events that could change the whole world were not that exciting and the conclusion and the bad guys were very obvious. Besides, this cat and mouse game played by Holmes and Moriarty was not as amazing as it could have been. Their enmity has lots of potential and unfortunately, in my opinion, it was not very well utilized.