A Slight Trick of the Mind

By: Mitch Cullin

Narrated by: Simon Jones

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

He's 93-years-old, in retirement in Sussex, beginning to lose his memory, and subject to emotions he has resisted all his life. His name is Sherlock Holmes.

It's 1947, and the long-retired Holmes lives in a remote Sussex farmhouse with a housekeeper and her young son, Roger. Holmes has recently returned from war-torn Japan and settled into the routine of tending his apiary, writing in his journals, and grappling with the waning powers of his once razor-sharp mind. Then Roger secretly searches Holmes' private study and uncovers the case of Mrs. Keller, the long-ago object of the legendary sleuth's deep, and never acknowledged, infatuation.

As Cullin weaves together Holmes' hidden past, his poignant struggle to retain mental acuity, and his unlikely relationship with Roger, who stirs his paternal affection, a mythic figure is transformed into an ordinary man. At once an engrossing mystery and a gripping character study, A Slight Trick of the Mind is an affecting and original portrait of literature's most beloved detective in the twilight of his illustrious life.

©2005 Mitch Cullin (P)2005 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

• 2005 Audie Award Winner, Fiction (Unabridged)

"An ambitious, beautifully written novel....This look at Holmes near his natural death is a delight and a deeply satisfying read." (Publishers Weekly)
"This is a lovely, tenderhearted book, full of reserve, good manners, elegance of feeling. It's what a novel should be. You don't read it to be "improved", but for the plain joy of seeing what the language can do in the hands of an affectionate, very accomplished writer." (The Washington Post)
"Under Cullin's sure hand, the vibrant, assured detective we know gives way to a man who looks back with regret at missed opportunities in a manner that makes the larger-than-life figure surprisingly human." (Booklist)

Very disappointing

I think that this book failed to draw me in and convince me that the considerable liberties it took with Conan Doyle's works was anything other than farfetched. The author seems to have given Holmes many opinions about various subjects which seem out of place and anachronistic. In the author's attempt to update this Holmes for a modern audience he has lost a lot of what made Conan Doyle's work so good. It is almost as if he is writing an original story about an unknown character, who just happens to share a name and certain abilities with Sherlock Holmes. I would not recommend this audiobook to others. If anyone wants to listen to a story about Sherlock Holmes, I would recommend the originals.

Never heard a worse book

I have listened to hundreds of hours of audible presentations. This is the current reigning champion for worst book, and has held its position firmly for over a year. If you have enjoyed the original Sherlock stories over the years and picked this because you wanted more adventures of the master dective, please don't be fooled. Sir Arthur Conan Doyal's descendants should sue for the damage done to the memory of one of fiction's greatest characters. The author develops Sherlock's character as a despondent, confused, bubmling old man and tops it off with a despondent, confused, bumbling plot. I stuck with it to the end, thinking the book would pull it all together, but it never happens. This is the literary equivalent of building a road into the desert, running out of funding and just ending the road in the middle of nowhere. Please don't waste the 50 MB on your ipod.

Know Your Characters...

A shambling mess of a novel, it misunderstands its main character (Sherlock Holmes) and the construction of a mystery story. There's almost no purpose to the novel: Holmes travels to Japan and doesn't have an adventure with the child of a former client, doesn't have an adventure with the accidental death of his housekeeper's son and recalls a case that wasn't an adventure. The actual writing itself is just plain bad: overblown and rambling.

At the end of the book I was left wondering why the author bothered telling this story at all.

And the character of Sherlock Holmes is entirely misrepresented. And I don't mean taking liberties with a well-established character like the Sherlock TV series. I mean this novel simply doesn't understand who Sherlock Holmes is or the nature of his character, even as a 90+ year old man.

The narration is adequate. Often the rhythm of the narration is at odds with the written word and the narrator doesn't seem familiar with the material.