This novel has a terrific concept; I'd love to see the actual Victorian Holmes dealing with the modern day. But in the end, it's very disappointing. It was adapted from an unsold TV pilot that was aired as a TV movie, and unfortunately, it reads like it. It introduces far too many characters and events unimportant to this narrative as if planning to bring them back later. Some half the book is essentially spent on exposition without there being a mystery to solve. And when there finally was one, it was ridiculously simple.

The writing is serviceable most of the time, though it can be plodding. It frequently violates the rule of "Show, don't tell," for example, it takes a few paragraphs to explain why Holmes is taken aback when he sees the police station; among other things, not only are there women, there are people whose gender he cannot determine. This would have been done better by having him make a mistake as a result of his misunderstanding. Far too much of the book tells us about things that occurred "off-camera," if you will.

Most important, I think Johnson fails in his depiction of Sherlock Holmes. Most of it is fine, down to the twinkle in the eye, but he's ridiculously rude. I don't mean rude by accident, but snide, abrupt, arrogant, and dismissive. While the Canonical Holmes could occasionally be that way with Watson, he would never be deliberately rude to a lady, even if she's just told him she's a physician, nor to most other people unless they deserved it. Victorian society had a lot of serious problems, but at least a gentleman didn't insult people unless it was truly called for.

Despite all these flaws, the book has some promising ideas, and I would be interested in giving a sequel a try if one is published. ( )

I'm usually up for any sort of riff on Holmes, but Holmes Coming just didn't work for me. The writing was stiff and the characters two-dimensional. The opening sequence—jogging police office mauled by tiger—was attention getting, but the momentum wasn't maintained.

I received a free electronic review copy from the publisher the opinions are my own. ( )