From Holmes to Sherlock by Mattias Bostrom

There are few books that make you tell your partner what you've just read every other page. My poor husband can attest to this, and I confess to waking him up to share some incredible tidbit from the book. From Charlie Chaplin to Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock Holmes has far surpassed anything that sir Arthur Conan Doyle could have imagined at the detective's original creation.

To say that Sherlock Holmes has outreached his creator would be an understatement. There was a time, and honestly it may still happen, when people would write to Sherlock Holmes about a case. Others would write to ask if he would like a new landlady, or other helpful services. During this time, it was someone's job at a bank to answer the thousands of letters that Sherlock Holmes would receive in the tone of the detective. Before the bank employee took on this task, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would answer these letters himself, and sometimes he would take the case.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mattias Bostrom is a Swedish author whose love of Sherlock Holmes is on another level. Not only did he write this 500+ page epic story about the character, the author, and how everyone from Charlie Chaplin to American presidents have been touched by the English detective; he also is a member of one of the many Sherlock Holmes clubs. To become a member of one of these clubs, you must know your stuff. Beyond your favorite Holme's story, you have to know about timeline discrepancies, the names of Watson's many wives, the names of all the characters that come in and out of the stories, etc. I love that Matthias has such a passion for the detective that her poured his soul into collecting all of this information. It is truly a love letter to the detective and the stories.

WHO WAS SHERLOCK HOLMES BASED ON?

This part gets a little tricky. Before becoming a paid writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thought he was destined for the medical field. In one of his medical classes there was a teacher and doctor who had extraordinary skills of deduction and observation. He was constantly trying to teach his students how important it was to observe their patients as well as listen to their problems. He would be able to correctly assess a massive amount of patients during the class period and put his students and patients in awe of his deductive powers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle became a favorite of this teacher and was allowed more access to his methods before and after class. Years later, Conan Doyle would start to create the famous detective based on his teacher. However, later in the book by Bostrom there are a few moments when family members of Sir Arthur claim that Sherlock was in fact their father, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. However, Bostrom makes a point in the beginning that Arthur was actually more like Watson than Sherlock.

THINGS I FOUND SURPRISING

I was blown away by people's love of Sherlock Holmes. I don't know why I was so surprised, because I too love Sherlock Holmes. After Sir Arthur Conan Doyle passed away, his family would go on tour to get the hype of Sherlock Holmes up again and again. When the family would arrive somewhere people always wanted to know more about Sherlock Holmes, and not their father. It is incredible to think that a character can surpass the author so much that people almost "need" him to be a real breathing human being. Netflix has just lately taken up the Sherlock Holmes reign with the Enola Holmes (Sherlock's younger sister). They have just finished two seasons, and I think there will be at least one more to come. It seems we, as a civilization, cannot quite this detective.

THINGS I'M STILL THINKING ABOUT

Not only is Matthias Bostrom's book a real life example of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point in great detail, it is a story of bringing people together. I cannot think of many characters who are known and loved around the world. During the Cold War the Soviets were crazy for Sherlock Holmes. They created their own movies, plays, books, etc. Also, there were so many name drops in the book that my head was spinning every other page. Sherlock Holmes is 5 degrees from everyone if not less.

If you haven't guessed I would highly recommend this book if you have ever been curious about Sherlock Holmes and where he came from, what happened after the author passed, and why we keep loving him as an audience many years later.

Book: From Holmes to Sherlock by Mattias Bostrom