Review: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What started out as a simple novel about helping Holmes to battle addiction quickly turned into a much larger struggle and I have to say that it captivated me. I pitied poor Holmes. I felt like I knew where he was coming from. I originally thought that the addition of Sigmund Freud would annoy me, but I actually ended up liking him.
I do have two main complaints about this book, however, and it’s probably best to set them down while they are still fresh in my mind.
The first one is regarding my specific copy of the book. Who edited this thing? This novel is priced at $14.99, and I sat down with it only to find that its editing didn’t make it worth the money. Seriously, did this book go through no editing process? Or did IBooks really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find copies of this book?
My other little complaint is that it took this story too long to get to the actual case that it followed because it spent so much time on Holmes’ addiction. I also felt that the explanation for Professor Moriarty and The Final Problem, while interesting, was not the most believable.
But it’s not a bad book. I enjoyed it immensely and found a really sweet relationship between Holmes and Watson. The way Watson cared for Holmes reminded me a lot of John from Sherlock and his narration was a joy to read.
All in all, this novel is well worth the read for those willing to see a different (yet faithful) take on the great detective.

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