Publishers Weekly
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Readers curious about an elderly Sherlock Holmes who was never a Victorian gentleman may enjoy this offbeat pastiche from Edgar-finalist McAlpine (Woman with a Blue Pencil). In 1943, Jorge Luis Borges hires an unnamed PI in Buenos Aires to read what purports to be an unpublished memoir in Holmes's own hand entitled Uncertainty. In the manuscript, dated 1928, Holmes claims that Dr. Watson has misled the public about his retirement, saying he has spent five years "disguised as a variety of visiting lecturers at Oxford and Cambridge Universities." Holmes is dumbfounded when Arthur Conan Doyle appears at Cambridge and is able to identify him even though he's disguised as classical physicist Heinrich von Schimmel. The author was told where to find Holmes by the spirit of Stanley Baldwin at a séance, despite Baldwin's being alive and serving as prime minister. Even weirder twists follow in a novel that explores the idea of parallel universes. That McAlpine's Holmes is far removed from Doyle's original may disappoint some Sherlockians. Agent: Lukas Ortiz, Philip Spitzer Literary Agency. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Believe it! Sherlock Holmes actually said, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. Thus does he foreshadow quantum mechanics in this pastiche that has the old bloodhound he's 73 now moving through a literary detective novel. It's to author McAlpine's credit that he makes what might have been an arch exercise into a joy to read. The plot finds Jorge Luis Borges coming across a manuscript handwritten by long-deceased Holmes. Suddenly Borges is evading a killer and seeking out a PI for help. Then we dive into the manuscript itself, and Holmes tells us he's become a college professor with a phony German accent. He's consulted by a midlist author named Conan Doyle about a problematic seance, and what follows is an engrossing display of Holmesian scholarship, bent on convincing us that Holmes was not the Victorian gentleman the late Watson portrayed. It's a fascinating read, smart and entertaining for all that it's based on those quantum mechanics. That's right, it's Holmes confronting alternate universes, and it's wonderful.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2018 Booklist

Library Journal
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Sherlock Holmes is spending his retirement disguised as an academic professional in varying fields, including his current persona Dr. Heinrich von Schimmel, a specialist in the history of classical physics. Although Holmes has told no one his identity, the well-known author Arthur Conan Doyle mysteriously finds the detective and begs for his assistance. Conan Doyle recently had a spiritual encounter through Madame Du Lac that led to a series of questions that the mysterious Eureka Society does not want answered. Holmes engages the help of the widowed Mrs. Watson (formerly one Mrs. Hudson) to protect Conan Doyle and stop the group. With a plethora of literary allusions along for the ride (including Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin and Ernest Hemingway), McAlpine (Woman with a Blue Pencil) creates a one-of-a-kind universe that blends literature, sf, and physics. Verdict This mystery has been described as metafiction, a genre that might not resonate with all readers or fans of Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes. Still, it will appeal to adventurous Holmes fans who enjoy more modern takes on a literary icon, such as James Lovegrove's Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows.-Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.