Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Years: Japan

By Vasudev Murthy

It’s 1893. King Kamehameha III of Hawaii declares Sovereignty Restoration Day ... Tension grows between China and Japan over Korea ... The Bengal Famine worsens ... A brilliant scientist in Calcutta challenges the system … The senior priest at Kyoto’s Kinkaku-ji temple is found dead in mysterious circumstances.
Dr John H. Watson receives a strange letter from Yokohama. Then the quiet, distinguished Mr. Hashimoto is murdered inside a closed room on a voyage from Liverpool to Bombay. In the opium dens of Shanghai and in the back alleys of Tokyo, sinister men hatch evil plots. Professor Moriarty stalks the world, drawing up a map for worldwide dominion.
Only one man can outwit the diabolical Professor Moriarty. Only one man can save the world. Has Sherlock Holmes survived the Reichenbach Falls?
In a seriocomic novel that radically ups the ante, Sherlock Holmes and Watson find their match in more than one man (or indeed, woman) as a clock inexorably ticks. History, mystery, romance, conspiracies, knife-edge tension; a train in Russia, roadside crime in Alexandria, an upset stomach in Bombay, careening through Cambodia, nasty people in China, monks in Japan–here’s a thrilling global chase that will leave you breathless (occasionally with laughter) as the Sherlock Holmes: The Missing Years series begins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Release date: Mar 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781464203664

Vasudev Murthy

Vasudev was born in Delhi and has meandered around the world with lengthy stopovers in Tallahassee and Dallas. His books span a variety of interests, from Indian classical music to crime fiction, humor, and business management. A violinist and animal rights activist, Vasudev lives with his family and five snoring dogs in Bangalore, India where he runs a consulting firm.

Reviews for Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Years

[lahochstetler · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book looks at what happened to Holmes between the Reichenbach Falls and his return to London. In this book Holmes makes his way all over the world. Moriarty is alive and dangerous, and Holmes is under surveillance and in constant danger. I enjoyed reading about Holmes's strategies for travelling undercover. Watson takes off across the globe with Holmes in this adventure. While this book was a pleasant enough way to pass the time, it didn't necessarily stand out for me among other Holmes pastiches. If I found another book in this series, I'd probably read it. This is a classic three-star read for me- pleasant but unmemorable.

[cathyskye · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This first book in the Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Years series is filled with exotic locales, a well-drawn cast of characters, and a running joke about Watson's new editor. Murthy proves adept at capturing the voices of his different characters, in particular Holmes, Watson, and a female agent in Japan, as Watson includes other characters' "reports" into his narrative. I also thought that it was genuinely fun to see how those two men manage to stay out of Moriarty's clutches.Vasudev Murthy has written a book sure to please readers who love all things Sherlock, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the next adventure takes me.

[eyes92c · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sherlockian intrigue enters a new era!What is it about Sherlock Holmes--the pull of Sherlockian or Holmesian interpretations? We can't seem to get enough of him. And he appears everywhere, in print, in film, in television, all with differing perceptions of the man, the myth--and now we have the 'Missing Years'It's 1893, approximately two years since Reichenbach Falls and Sherlock's death. Watson receives a note ostensibly from Sherlock asking him to go to Japan. Does he think twice? No, he goes!On Board ship he meets a number of interesting people including the quiet and gentle Mr. Kazushi Hashimoto with whom he shares a cabin. The morning the ship docks in Alexandria, Watson awakes to find the small cabin window open and Mr. Hoshimoto dead. With another passenger, Mr. Shamsher Singh, Watson investigates how access might have been gained to the cabin. Watson himself appears to have slept through the incident, a restless sleep accompanied by strange dreams.This is just the beginning of a diabolical plot that leads straight to Moriarty! The plot moves from Bombay to Vladivostok, across Asia to Japan. Three criminal gangs--Yakuza, the opium trade and economic domination are all part of the twist. Add to that the spectre of Moriaty and the cup is more than full--it doth overflow! As Watson observes when Sherlock is recounting his time post the Falls, 'the whole thing was bewildering in its complexity.'(Having just read a Laurie King novel about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes partly set in Japan I was fascinated. Particularly as on their journey someone was killed in a locked cabin--and some other occurrences that whilst very different draw similar lines of arraignment. Fascinating!)Watson's chronicles, and the inclusion of comments by other players, adds an interpretive account post the case, further illuminating events for us. Initially I didn't warm to this artifice but as time went on I appreciated Watson's little asides. The story took on its own reality. And those endless monographs! I do appreciate author Watson's humour with his running commentaries about Poisoned Pen Press.Holmes and Watson's seemingly mad scramble across the southern asian continent is a wonderful mixture of pure Sherlockian intrigue that combines the heady excitement of new discoveries, be it the landscape and it's flora and fauna, cultural, architectural, scientific enquiries that Holmes is so focused on and delighted by, or escaping Moriaty's seekers in a variety of astonishing and heart stopping ways. It's here that I thought Sherlock Holmes--a precursor to Indiana Jones perhaps?The culmination in Japan is bursting with possibilities, indeed the whole expanse of Holmes and Watson's journey is hectic, rapid and astonishing.The forward by certainly Vasudev Murthy helps to focus attention upon the story telling possibilities inherent in Sherlock's missing years. The further I delved into missing years chronicle by Watson, the more I was drawn into its dynamics.A NetGalley ARC

[muddyboy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does not have anything to worry about with this book. This novel takes place during a period when Holmes is apparently killed by Moriarty and his reappearance three years later. The case involves Moriarty's attempt to link with the Japanese underworld with the goal of smuggling opium to the European market. Most of the book occurs on their trip by land and sea to Japan. I thought it moved very slowly with way too much side information offered that added little.

[bevash · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a well written book. The characters were developed and interesting. The only reason I gave this book three stars was I found some of it boring, more detail than I needed. While there was some action, there really was not a lot of mystery. I received this copy from NetGalley for an honest review.