The great detective Sherlock Holmes is alone, experiencing the indignities of age, and on his greatest case ever: himself. It is 1947 and he is 93. He has long since left Baker Street, living now in a farmhouse in a distant part of Sussex.
His former housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, is no longer with him; he has a Mrs. Munro now. She lives in a small cottage on Holmes’ property with her son, Roger.
Holmes’ long-time biographer, Dr. Watson, is no longer in the picture. Without cases to unite them, the two had drifted apart, though maintaining their friendship to some degree through irregular correspondence.
But now Watson has passed away, as has Mrs. Hudson. Holmes’ brother Mycroft is gone too. Never having had a flair for relationships, the great detective is essentially alone.
He spends his days working at his apiary and his journals. But he is at an age when his famous intellect is degrading. His memory has begun to fail him, and circumstances are arising that bring him to look at aspects of his life and question himself.
The novel, A Slight Trick of the Mind, is really three interconnected stories involving Holmes, with bees as a common element. These stories cut back and forth between one another, coming together and resolving with the novel’s conclusion.
The first story is that of Holmes, Mrs. Munro’s son Roger, and the apiary. Roger (often referred to by Holmes as “the boy”) has somehow become Holmes’ apiary assistant, tending the bees as diligently and efficiently as Holmes would. He is a bright boy, learning quickly and impressing (and pleasing) Holmes by the sharpness of his detailed mind. Perhaps Holmes sees something of himself in Roger. At the least, to his mind the two of them share a love and appreciation for the bees.
The second story is that of a trip Holmes makes to Japan to see firsthand a particular plant in its native element. He wants to see how it is prepared for a concoction Holmes believes aids memory, among other things. The trip is initiated by the invitation of another apparent enthusiast of the plant (and of bees), Mr. Umezaki. After arriving in Japan, the ostensible reason for the invitation is questioned by Holmes when he is told he knew Mr. Umezaki’s father, something of which Holmes has no memory. Mr. Umezaki’s father had left his family years ago, leaving only a letter suggesting he did so on the advice of Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
The third story is that of Ann Keller. In fact, author Mitch Cullin presents it as a Sherlock Holmes tale, written by Holmes however, not Watson: The Glass Armonicist – The Case of Mrs. Ann Keller of Fortis Grove. Having become despondent after losing a child in birth, Ann Keller begins wandering off and otherwise behaving oddly, alarming her husband. To take her mind off her troubles and cheer her to a degree, he sends her to see an armonicist for lessons on the instrument. She appears to love it but her behavior becomes even more peculiar and seemingly obsessive so her husband hires Holmes to find out what is happening.
Struggling with his flagging intellectual powers and come-and-go memories, Holmes is on a journey of self-discovery for while bees are a kind of connective tissue between the three stories, thematically it is relationships that unite them – parent and child, siblings, friendships, community – giving the bees and the apiary, and what they represent to Holmes, a far greater significance.
The title, A Slight Trick of the Mind, refers to something Holmes does to deal with the emotional impacts of relationships, a restorative exercise he practices to gain control and maintain his logical and bloodless approach to the world.
At both the beginning and end of this “trick of the mind” he practices, Holmes quotes, “Mens sana in corpore sano.” The Latin phrase means, “A sound mind in a sound body.” (The slight trick of the mind also refers to what is happening to Holmes’ memory and other mental powers.)
Published in 2005, I’ve now read this book twice (back then and just recently) and both times came away marveling at it, feeling it’s only defect is that it ends.
While it is about a great intellect beginning to experience what age can do to the mind (and all the terrors of that), it is really about a personality terrified by what it doesn’t understand and cannot manage: emotion. The best Holmes can do is his little trick, which boils down to fleeing from his emotions.
For all his skills, genius, and knowledge, Sherlock Holmes is an ignorant man when it comes to his emotional life.
As an aside, this book was made into a movie, Mr. Holmes (2015) starring Ian McKellen as Sherlock Holmes. I’ve not seen it so I cannot say whether it is good or not but I suspect it would be, given the actor and the story.
Originally published December 22, 2015
