The Whole Art of Detection is... odd. Holmes pastiche is always just a little wonky but one ignores the slight shifts in this direction or that. Faye's shifts, however, stand out uncomfortably. The recurring instances of Holmes helping a downtrodden woman who wishes to be free of male encumbrances, and Watson tying himself into knots over Holmes' cocaine habit and stating his determination to wean him from it, just isn't ACD as I read him. The Watson bit is much more Laurie R. King and her felt need to make Mycroft lose weight because fat is
It's still a fun read and the cases no more feeble than other pastichers, but it's not quite the second coming of ACD that reviews led me to expect.
