Friday, February 1, 2013

Holmes of the Raj by Vithal Raj

A Pastiche is a work of art, literature etc which imitates a previous work by another artist. This work is a pastiche of  Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes and his dear friend, Dr. Watson visits India and the book is Watson's account of their travel.


The stories are narrated by Watson in true Conan Doyle style. But sadly the stories look like a travelogue rather than mysteries. The author's determination to make Holmes and Watson meet every distinguished Indian of that time become ridiculous after some time. Holmes and Watson , during their travel, meet Motilal Nehru, Swami Vivekananda, Rudyard Kipling , Srinivasa Ramanujan and many others. I almost laughed my head off when Holmes meet a cotton farmer Rhett Butler, who is using the alias Clark Gable. 

This surely seems to be a well-researched book, but not anywhere near the original. Read it only if you are a hard core Holmes fan and would like to collect anything related.

A disappointment, 1 out of 5.