The Canary Trainer

Located by a computer in the bowels of a major university, this missing manuscript by Dr. John Watson, the biographer of Sherlock Holmes, reveals for the first time a hitherto unknown episode in the life of the Great Detective. The year is 1891, Paris is the capital of the western world, and its opera house is full of surprises. First and by no means the least is the sudden reappearance of the great love of Holmes's life, an accomplished singer from Hoboken, New Jersey. Second is the series of seemingly bizarre accidents -- each more sinister than the last -- allegedly arranged by the "Opera Ghost", an opponent who goes by many names and is more than equal to Holmes. Alone in a strange and spectacular city, with none of his resources, Holmes is commissioned to protect a vulnerable young soprano, whose beautiful voice obsesses a creature no one believes is real, but whose jealousy is lethal. In this dazzling, long-awaited sequel to The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, the detective pits wits against a musical maniac, and we are treated to an adventure unlike any other in the archives of Sherlock Holmes.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.