Sherlock Holmes and the Real Thing

By: Nicholas Meyer

Narrated by: David Robb, Nick Meyer

London, 189–: The great city is brought to a standstill by a series of blizzards and Sherlock Holmes is bored to distraction. It would take a miracle to bring a case to the detective’s door....

What arrives is not promising: a landlady who complains her artist tenant is behind on rent. Not exactly the miracle for which Holmes was hoping. But, next thing you know, there are several corpses, and Sherlock Holmes and his biographer, John H. Watson, MD, find themselves drawn into one of the most bizarre cases of the great detective’s career. And into the cutthroat big business of Art, where chicanery and mendacity (and cut throats) proliferate.

What makes a work of art worth killing for? Is it the artist, his mistress, his dealer, or his blackmailer? The cast of characters is large. But are they perpetrators, accomplices, or victims? And just who is Juliet Packwood, with whom Watson has become infatuated?

Oh, and there’s one other problem: Is this a genuine Holmes case or a clever forgery? Is this the real thing?

If you can’t tell the difference, what is the difference?

©2025 Nicholas Meyer (P)2025 Highbridge Audio

Enjoyable Homage

This was a very enjoyable excursion into the world of art history and commerce. I do wish, though, that Meyer had not persisted in misquoting one of Holmes’s key admonitions.

Story

Best of the most recent novels with a good premise, execution. I was sorry to hear that it’s probably the last of the series.

Outstanding

I honestly feel that Meyer is as good as Conan Doyle. His tales get better and better, both in the mystery and characterization of Holmes and Watson. The Real Thing is a great mystery with a lot of twists and turns, as amply explained in the Epilogue. Enjoy!