Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Paper Journal

By Harrison Kitteridge

What if every event in your life from the profoundly meaningful to the numbingly mundane were scrupulously recorded and readily available for all to see? What if with a click anyone could know your bank balance, what medications you are taking, and the contents of your last performance review at work? In such a world, what would there be left for Sherlock Holmes to deduce?

It is nearing the turn of the 22nd century, and Sherlock Holmes isn't having much luck trying to be a detective. Social networking has morphed into a single, centralised, government-linked platform called The Archive. Every citizen has a Personal Archive File, which records all the significant (and most of the insignificant) moments of their lives and is open to everyone else. Birth records, school records, medical and financial records (virtually everything anyone could want to know about a person) are readily accessible to anyone who takes the time to look someone up. In a world that is ostensibly without secrets, what use are the keen deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes when they rarely reveal anything about a person a quick Archive search wouldn't? Add to that the recent development of a new crime-solving computer program, and human detectives are on the cusp of extinction. In this brave new world, Sherlock Holmes struggles to prove his worth as a detective, sort out his feelings for his flatmate and sidekick, John Watson, and manage his relationships with his interfering older brothers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harrison Kitteridge
• Release date: May 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9789769593015

Harrison Kitteridge

When I was a child, I wanted to be a detective, and I learned to read upside down, track people using their reflections in shop windows and take fingerprints using talcum powder and sello tape. (My parents were smart enough to keep me away from Plaster of Paris.) I even started a Young Detective’s Club (yes, I was that kid). We disbanded after a few weeks because of a dearth of cases. I've never lost my interest in crime-solving and there is always room in my life for another police procedural. So, I suppose it’s fitting that my first novel is my take on the world’s most famous fictional detective. I am both an old school Sherlockian and a Johnlock shipper.