As far as rooms go, this one should have a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door. If you take a gander at the cover it promises that "the heirs of Sherlock Holmes solve the world's most perplexing cold cases". False advertising. Now I love Sherlock Holmes, I've read through the cannon multiple times, I see every television version out there, I even started dating a guy who shared a mutual love of the consulting detective at 221 B Baker STreet. I will admit that I am often disappointed at the fanfiction recreations of Holmes or his methods. I thought The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls was cracked out, please the evil spirit of Moriarty jumping from body to body? Then again I have always given the Mary Russell novels, which I was very dubious about a fair chance (for what its worth I think they're very well written and have kept my interest through something like nine or ten novels now). Some more modern versions, notably The Baker Street Letters I'm more mixed about ( though I do have the second book in the series The Brothers of Baker Street, coming out on March 1, reserved at the library). However The Murder Room just had way too much going on.In the first forty pages the perspective jumped about six times, the anecdotes which were supposed to set the scene just confused me, and worst of all I was bored out of my mind. The antics of the so-called Vidocq society (after the first professional detective) were just plain dull. The 100% cerebral reasoning of cases was flat and the childish bickering between the three keynote members was just plain stupid. I'm all for witty banter, if its actually witty. Once the concept was established I confess I zipped in and out, picking and choosing the chapters I thought would be interesting. It may be cheating to say that I never read the whole book cover to cover, but their you have it . Mea culpa, I assure you my life in no way feels bereft.
Part of me selfishly wonders if the writing is too highbrow for me, perhaps I'm more comfortable with a lower element in writing. After all the young adult fiction may be stunting my reading abilities. In my defense however when I read, no matter what I read, its the good story, the satisfying story that I'm looking for in the end. The Murder Room wasn't going to meet that bottom line from the first five pages, I stuck with it hoping that the human element would kick in, but it never did. What makes Sherlock Holes endearing, even fascinating is his Boswell, without his human half displayed as Watson (or in Laurie R. King's books as his wife Mary) your left reading a police file folder about a crime, or a tedious explanation of how to put together the solution to a murder the same way you would explain how to put together a bookshelf from Ikea. I've never read true crime, and this book is a little to true crime to be my kind of novel.
