I do not think that there can ever be enough books about anything and I say that knowing that some of them are going to be about Pilates.The more knowledge the better seems like a solid rule of thumb, even though I have watched enough science fiction films to accept that humanity’s unchecked pursuit of learning will end with robots taking over the world.-Sarah Vowell

Monday, April 30, 2018

Holmes Entangled by Gordon McAlpine


The book opens with Sr. J.L. Borges*, a librarian going to see a PI in Buenos Aries, Argentina in 1943.  He carries with him a mysterious manuscript and an ever more mysterious tale. Apparently, he dreamed the detective including the details of his current case which the detective has disclosed to no one.  The answers, Borges believes, are in this manuscript.

The manuscript was written by the famous detective Sherlock Holmes in 1928.  Dr. Watson has been dead for the past three years and Holmes has been "retired to the country" for a while now. Instead, he spends his time in disguise teaching lectures at Cambridge and Oxford on a variety of topics.  No one has caught on til now. Sir Author Conan Doyle the writer of romances, a history of the Boer War that earned him the knighthood, and lately articles on spiritualism, have discovered him through the most unusual means.

At a seance, the spirit of the current Prime Minister who appeared as a cripple and not a Prime Minister told him where to find Holmes and instructed him to go and talk to him.  Doyle wrote up a paper for the Spiritualist Journal and was told that they didn't want it and was kicked off its board. He was then shot later that night.  Someone doesn't want the information out of what he saw. So he has hired Holmes to save his life.

This book does indeed lead to the idea of multiple universes and a group that will do anything to keep the idea secret.  Who can they be?  My hope was that there would be more on the multiple universes but this was a mystery not a science fiction novel or a real combination of both.  So I was let down a little bit. The mystery could have been a bit better.  It was a very neat idea in theory and I would have like to have seen it carried out better. It was nice to see Mrs. Hudson in the role of John's widow and Sherlock's helper.  This was an okay book. Something to pass the time with and a novelty.

*J.L. Borges is, for those like myself who are ignorant of the famous Argentinian literary great, Jorge Louis Borges.  He was an essayist, poet, short story writer, and yes, a librarian.  He is said to have invented magical realism.  His short stories were connected by the topics of dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, philosophy, and religion.  He led an interesting life. For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges

Quotes
“Does this [quantum mechanics] make sense to you? I asked at last.
She answered without hesitation. “Not really.”
“Then that means there’s a chance I explained it properly, Mrs. Watson, as quantum mechanics makes sense to no one, including its brilliant progenitors, even if experiments indicate it is so.”
-Gordon McAlpine (Holmes Entangled p 140-1)
Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Holmes-Entangled-Gordon-McAlpine-ebook/dp/B0738JWQCV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525091396&sr=8-1&keywords=holmes+entangled

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