Sherlock Holmes and the Needle's Eye by Len Bailey

The great Sherlock Holmes uncovers.... Biblical mysteries? You've got to be kidding me, this isn't canon. Oh, it's a fan work? Ok, I guess that's alright then.

That was basically my reaction when I saw this book on NetGalley (you can blame Detective Conan for the canon part). But I was glad to read it, it's actually a really awesome read!

As you can tell from my first sentence, this book has Holmes and the ever faithful Watson (and in one case, their landly) travel through time through a device called "The Needles Eye". At each time, they find a mysterious card that has a mystery, like "Why did Abithopel (check sp) betray Jesus?", "Why did David pick five stones instead of one?" and so on.

While I admit their answers are convincing, I'm not sure as to how true they are. For some, like the David and the stones mystery, the answer is deduced from other pieces on information. For some, like "What did Jesus write on the ground during the case of the woman caught in adultery?", we have no way of knowing, and their 'solution' is nothing more than an educated guess. And for some, like the question of Abithopel's betrayal, the Biblical references cited are convincing enough that I'll actually use it as an answer.

In addition to these mysteries, there is quite a lot of interaction between the characters, which I enjoyed. The author clearly loves Holmes and Watson, and you can see him writing out the scenes with glee. Plus some, like the one of Sherlock having lunch on top of a carriage are laugh-out-loud funny. Apart from humour, both characters do struggle with their faith, which is a new aspect of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

If you're interested in Biblical mysteries and you like Sherlock Holmes, you've definitely got to get this book. It's a fun read, and I like how they deduced almost all their solutions from the Bible.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.