This book is not a Sher­lock­ian pastiche, although Mycroft Holmes does appear in two short stories within the story.

Damien March is a 30ish researcher at the BBC, who un­ex­pect­ed­ly inherits a house on a remote island off Cape Cod, from his late uncle Patrick, a once-successful novelist. He moves to Ionia and slowly starts inhabiting the life of Patrick. Brothers are a recurring theme throughout this book: Patrick and Damien’s father; Damien and his brother Vivian; Mycroft and Sherlock; and others. Damien comes to an un­der­stand­ing and a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion of some of those fractured re­la­tion­ships.

One wonders how much of Patrick’s character is inspired by Marcel Theroux‘s father, Paul.

This book drags in the first half, but held my interest in the latter half. Certainly a novel of ideas, rather than of action.