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Sherlockian Mysteries That Will Keep You Tied Up

Illustration: Man tied up reading a book.
Priscilla Nielsen for NPR

"The game's afoot, Watson!"

Indeed, for Sherlockians, 2011 certainly feels like a year when the literary "game" of exploring the genesis and extending the limits of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 short stories and four novels about Holmes and Watson has grown more frenetic. (This winter sees the return of two acclaimed incarnations of Holmes in film: A Game of Shadows, the second of Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes movies; and series two of the BBC's offbeat Sherlock, which places our heroes in contemporary Britain.)

To clear a path through the literary fog, here are my picks for two of the best new works of fiction and criticism about The Great Detective, as well as my recommendations for some terrific novels featuring contemporary investigators who carry forward Holmes' trademark method of detection: "an observance of trifles."

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Maureen Corrigan
Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, is The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. She is an associate editor of and contributor to Mystery and Suspense Writers (Scribner) and the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Criticism, presented by the Mystery Writers of America. In 2019, Corrigan was awarded the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle.

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