The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols by Nicholas Meyer

The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols by Nicholas Meyer

Genre: historical mystery

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Minotaur Books

Publication Date: October 15, 2019

Blurb

With the international bestseller The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer brought to light a previously unpublished case of Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by Dr. John H. Watson. Now Meyer returns with a shocking discovery—an unknown case drawn from a recently unearthed Watson journal.

January 1905: Holmes and Watson are summoned by Holmes’ brother Mycroft to undertake a clandestine investigation. An agent of the British Secret Service has been found floating in the Thames, carrying a manuscript smuggled into England at the cost of her life. The pages purport to be the minutes of a meeting of a secret group intent on nothing less than taking over the world.

Based on real events, the adventure takes the famed duo—in the company of a bewitching woman—aboard the Orient Express from Paris into the heart of Tsarist Russia, where Holmes and Watson attempt to trace the origins of this explosive document. On their heels are desperate men of unknown allegiance, determined to prevent them from achieving their task. And what they uncover is a conspiracy so vast as to challenge Sherlock Holmes as never before. (from Goodreads)

Review

First of all, I’m not a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. As a young teen, The Hound of the Baskervilles freaked me out. (It still does.) But when I tried to read A Study in Scarlet, it underwhelmed me. The rest? The stories didn’t resonate with me. In addition, most of the Holmesian spin-offs haven’t resonated with me, either. (One exception is Laurie R. King’s excellent series.)

It’s not Sherlock, it’s me.

All that to say, I can’t speak to any similarities or differences in Meyer’s style versus Doyle’s, how true this version of Holmes is to the original creation, or anything else that matters to die-hard Sherlock fans.

What I can say is this: Surprise! I thoroughly enjoyed The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols.

What drew me into the book

The book opens with a preface, wherein Meyer spins a yarn about the Sotheby auction of a previously unknown Watson journal and a colleague asking Meyer to examine it for its authenticity. Meyer (the fictional version) even references his real life work on the Star Trek series as he continues his tale with how he studied the manuscript, edited it, and what changes (if any) he made.

It’s exactly the sort of preface I’ve read for published journals of real life people, though most of those editors aren’t nearly as amusing as Meyer.

If you’re looking for action on page one, this may seem slow. But my inner English major geeked out about this. The preface sets us up for a story where issues of authenticity and forgeries (not to mention truth and lies) are of vital importance.

What kept me reading

The preface gives us an amusing, wink-wink, author’s-sleight-of-hand version of this idea. But the story that follows shows just how important this difference is: the results of what we believe to be true affect others in tremendous, sometimes horrific, ways.

The book is by turns fun and horrifying. It’s amusing to read Meyer’s “footnotes” and his innuendos about what might (or might not) have happened between Sherlock and the ravishing Anna Strunsky Walling.

But the historical basis for this case is eerily prescient of the 20th century– and our own. When Holmes muses that in the 20th century, crimes are getting bigger, we know just how big those will get.

Meyer weaves current events (such as the failed Russian revolution of 1905) and historical persons into his tale. Constance Garnett, the first English translator of Tolstoy and many other Russian authors, plays a role, as does Professor Chaim Weismann, later president of Israel.

Meyer uses the Protocols, which purport to be minutes from a meeting of Jews plotting to take over the world, for fictional purposes here. (This is revealed early enough that it doesn’t seem like a spoiler, in my opinion.) However, the real life version, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was an actual antisemitic propaganda document that was later exposed as a fraud. Unfortunately, despite condemnation and repeated exposures in the press, it continues to be disseminated in certain areas of the world.

Watson and Holmes journey to Tsarist Russia, where their search takes them to dark places. The results of antisemitism and authoritarian rule are everywhere. There is one chapter that is heart-wrenching as it portrays the affects of a pogrom on two survivors, including a young rape victim. (Note: For some, this may be a trigger, though Meyer does not give graphic details of what the girl endured.) Even the normally stoic Sherlock Holmes is unnerved. His anguish, though understated, made me like him all the more.

Final thoughts

Overall, this is a well-written novel that makes some serious points.

As Holmes notes, lies left unchecked develop strength and credibility. Lies, such as those presented in the Protocols and other propaganda, fuel fears.

The target of those fears? Anyone other than us. Jews, immigrants, anyone who isn’t like us. We hate what we fear. Everywhere we look today, we can see the results of hatred. The book is both an entertaining story and a warning.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary copy of The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols in exchange for an honest review.