Something we weren’t entirely expecting but are totally onboard for: Famous former basketballer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a subject for his first novel, and that subject is Sherlock Holmes’ brother, Mycroft Holmes.
Abdul-Jabbar, who is a record 19-time NBA All-Star and also a delightful guest star on New Girl,  will publish said first novel this fall through Titan Books, a co-write with screenwriter/producer Anna Waterhouse (On the Shoulders Of Giants), and a looongtime love of one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In fact, according to New York Times‘ Artsblog, Abdul-Jabbar first fell into Doyle adoration during his rookie season forty years ago.
I was fascinated by Holmes’s ability to see clues where other people saw nothing.
[…] I realized more could be done with this ‘older, smarter’ character and his window onto the highest levels of British government — at a time when Britain was the most powerful country in the world.
This is hardly Abdul-Jabbar’s first book — he’s a best-selling author who wrote his autobiography in 1983 and has written eight books total — but this will be his first novel, as he usually writes nonfiction. As for where this particular novel will find Mycroft, here’s how Artsblog describes the plot:
Set in England and Trinidad, the story centers on Mycroft, a recent university graduate working for the British Secretary of State for War. Mycroft learns from his best friend of troubling events occurring in Trinidad — mysterious disappearances, dead children and strange, backward facing footprints in the sand. Mycroft goes to Trinidad to investigate and to follow his fiancée, Georgiana, who was raised on the island. Sherlock has a cameo as a King’s College student.
Aw, college-age Sherlock. And Mycroft as the star!
I’m digging this. So is he:
(Images via Rena Schild/Shutterstock.com; Tumblr)
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Published: Jan 11, 2015 02:03 pm