Elementary: Blood and Ink

A high-powered businessman is found dead in a shady room-by-the-hour hotel, a fountain pen jammed in his eye, with Holmes and Watson on the case. As they delve into the financials of his company — a hedge fund with serious security concerns — they uncover a connection to a similar crime, one that points toward a motivational speaker who is transforming failing businesses. But what would he have to gain from the crime? In a high-stakes game of money and murder, anything is possible.Inspired by CBS’s wonderful Sherlockian drama Elementary, Blood and Ink plays on our distrust of big business by casting doubt and shadows all over and burying the reader in financial minutiae. Although this makes for a more complex case than the usual fare, it also forces the story to double back on itself too many times, sacrificing tension and a plethora of if-then red herrings. When you couple that with the increasingly goofy antics of Holmes with regard to Everyone (the Elementary version of hacker group Anonymous), you have a recipe for a story that underwhelms. The real highlight here is Joan Watson, who shines as an investigator and a character, carrying the best parts of the novel.