What a delight! Right from the set up of how this latest Watson manuscript was found, we're invited on another rollicking Sherlockian adventure. Meyer has so thoroughly captured Watson's voice that it's like putting on a comfortable old sweater. Great plot, great characters, and great pacing make for another successful homage. Loved it!

My thanks to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers- Mysterious Press for an advance copy featuring the team of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson as they attempt to figure out the whereabouts of a missing artist, and find a whole new world of crime and skullduggery in the world of paintings and portraits.

I found two sections in the book, one in the novel and one in the afterword from the author dealing with the question of who decides what is art, and what is original, that made me pause both times. I have a complicated relationship with others continuing to work with characters created by others. Especially today when everything seems to geared to make a profit, and not profit fans in decent storytelling. Both the fiction and nonfiction, part of a conversation between Holmes and Watson, and a retelling by the author of the book of an encounter really summed up what I thought, what I felt, and helped me feel better for enjoying works like this. So in addition to a find story, with a great use of classic characters, I have even more to thank Nicholas Meyer for. Sherlock Holmes and the Real Thing features the team of Watson and Holmes as they learn about a new kind of crime, the one that takes place in the highest levels of art world, a crime that might lead someone to murder.

The time is the end of the 1800's and London is buried under snow that seems to be not stopping. People are trapped in their homes, the municipal workers are overwhelmed, and Sherlock Holmes is bored, bored, bored. Thankfully a hansom cab delivers a client, a young woman with an interesting story. The woman is the widow of a wealthy man who owns many properties in the town. One of her renters is an artist of renown, but has not paid his rent in months. A look inside the studio shows nothing, but the woman is concerned enough to come to Holmes to find him. The studio is indeed empty, except for a large chest, piles of money, a paining on an easel, and a bit of blood on the ground. A conversation with Mycroft, Sherlock's older, smarter, and more obese brother introduces Sherlock to a whole new world. A world of high priced art dealers, and restorers, with sometimes a lack of honesty. The more Holmes investigates the more he fears that this case is far larger than he expects. And more dangerous.

Nicholas Meyer is probably better known for his Hollywood movies, Star Trek, Time After Time, and a movie version of his own book The Seven Percent Solution. Meyer has been writing about Holmes for over 50 years and has a real grasp of what makes the characters and the stories so interesting. There is a sense of an ending here also, as this might be the last mystery that Meyer will write, and if it is well he is leaving head held high. The story is good, played fair, with a clues and Sherlock figuring things out about people that others might miss. There are many Easter eggs in the story leading back to other novels of Meyer and of classic stories also. Meyer gets the relationship between Holmes and Watson, and that is really the highlight of the book. Also Meyer lets Holmes be a little more human, which I have always enjoyed. What I also liked was that the art world was new to Sherlock Holmes, and to have him learn as we were reading was kind of novel.

I do hope this is not the last book, as I really enjoy the work the Meyer does. Fans of Sherlock will really enjoy this, and if this is the last, well start at the beginning and enjoy.

Another fine Holmes tale that focuses less on real life historical events / people and more on the craft of Art, the question of authenticity and its monetary value and social impact - concepts that are still relevant in the 21st Century (with the rise of AI, social media filters and such). The story is well paced with enough suspects and clues to keep the reader guessing until the end. Meyer is an expert in capturing Doyle's tone and cadence for the characters and situations that one could almost believe it was a 'lost' case written by Doyle.

I love Sherlock Holmes. I have loved him since I was 14 (and that's a very long time ag0). I read as many of the sequels that have been written to the original series.

And this is an excellent one. I enjoyed it from start to finish. I do think that Holmes gets nicer with each iteration I've read--not only by Meyer but in general, but that is not necessarily a bad thing (although I think part of Holmes' charm for me as an adolescent was his surliness!).

The "real thing" in this story is all about art (but maybe other things as well?). Lady Glendenning comes to Holmes because her tenant, a painter, has disappeared. All his belongings are still in his room but he is gone. Her timing is excellent: Holmes is of all the most deadly fates for him the worst: bored. Otherwise, he probably would not deign to take on such a pedestrian case.

Things turn out in some ways as you might expect but also, in other ways, quite differently.. Meyer takes us into the art world--not the one of surface glitter and dreams and aesthetic thrills but the dark underside--the one of stolen works, thieves, and, above all, forgers.

In addition to all its other pleasures, I enjoyed the ways in which Meyer explores the line between what is "real" and what is "fake"--as well as why it matters to us. That may have been my greatest pleasure in this story.

But there were plenty of others. As usual with Meyer, his story is well-plotted and well-paced. Old friends--such as Sherlock's erudite brother Mycroft and former member of the Baker Street Irregulars--make appearances. And since Watson (the "author") is here, so is a beautiful and somewhat mysterious woman.

Smooth and easy to digest, this book was a pleasure from start to finish.

Sherlock Holmes and the Real Thing will be published on August 26, 2025. I want to thank Penzler Publishers/Mysterious Press, NetGalley, and the author for giving me this early copy of the novel.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

If you’ve run out of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock and Watson stories, Nicholas Meyer has captured the tone, language and spirit of the tales with his set of novels in “The Journals of John H. Watson, M.D.” series. I believe this is the 7th addition (“The Seven Percent Solution,” “The West End Horror,” and “The Canary Trainer” are among the others.)

This time, the title, “Sherlock Holmes and the Real Thing” is indicative of both the plot (regarding art and forgeries) and a self-realization by the author that what he does by mimicking Conan Doyle’s work is also a sort of forgery. At the beginning, Meyer suggests this “newly found” memoir was located in the children’s section of a Boca Raton, Florida library by a fourteen year old. Or maybe “this is all ChatGPT.” Oh well. Anyway, if you’re not contemplating “if you can’t tell the difference, what is the difference?,” then enjoy a story of Sherlock’s deductive genius again. With a bonus for Watson. Her name is Juliet. 4 stars!

Thank you to Penzler Publishers/Mysterious Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

I have enjoyed all of Nicholas Meyer’s Sherlock Holmes pastiches; but, unfortunately, this is the weakest entry in the series. Sherlock and Watson are still enjoyable if maybe not quite as true to their prototypes as they once were. I liked the convoluted story of a missing artist and the surprise at the end so it is a let down to say that it dragged badly. It drags because there s so much information dumped about the production of art and the inner workings of selling old master paintings. I know something of the subject and could follow but it just plodded between plot points and action. I received an advance copy through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Holmes and Watson find themselves ensconced in a case involving paintings, possibly emulations or even forgeries of master works, a missing artist and an elusive art dealer. Forced to reconcile with a subject he knows little about, Holmes accumulates an education about classical art while Watson finds himself falling for a woman whom they visit to obtain more knowledge about the art world.
While it wasn't like the brasher, more exciting subjects of Meyer's last two Holmes pastiches, the story was nonetheless carefully layered and very educational on the subjects within. I did figure out the biggest aspect of the case very early on due to some of the clues Holmes and Watson found, and I'm rather surprised Holmes didn't pick up on what seemed pretty "elementary," though I suppose if he did this would have been a mere short story.