Some NBA legends become sports announcer . Other become film stars . But only one has branched out intowriting mystery novels starring Sherlock Holmes ’ honest-to-goodness brother . Kareem Abdul - Jabbar ’s second book in this series , Mycroft and Sherlock , is out October 9 , and we ’ve got an sole stoolie peek .
Mycroft and Sherlock is the conform to - up to 2015 ’s acclaimed Mycroft Holmes ( both books are co - written by Abdul - Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse ) . As the title suggests , this new novel sport both Holmes crony — in this take on the characters , Mycroft is 26 , and Sherlock ’s “ nearly 19”—as they get caught up in a serial publication of murder tie into London ’s opium craft . The surgical incision we ’re share here gives you a glance of how independent character Mycroft is present in the book … as well as his amusingly contentious family relationship with his eccentric younger brother .
Mycroft hear Huan ’s knuckles hip-hop against the trap door . He look up from his paper and seek to escape from off the feeling of disorientation and nausea that seemed to hassle him as of late .
From the window he spied the National Standard Theatre , where he and Sherlock had arranged to encounter . The area was both down - at - heel shabby and oddly genteel , crowd with public houses , delight garden , shop class and bazaars .
“ Your brother , he cares for house ? ” Huan called out .
“ He is fond of it , in his manner , ” Mycroft said . “ Although when I took him to see The Bells at the Lyceum , he name neither the acting nor the writing , but went on about the costume and make-up ! ”
As the carriage make nearer and Huan fought for preeminence among cab , carts and brewers ’ dray , Mycroft could see three figure underneath the theatre ’s dandy arcade . One he recognized immediately : the visibility resonant of a doll of prey , the tall , angulate , even consumptive material body . If his identity had been in doubtfulness , the instrument eccentric that lay nearby — which Mycroft knew held a vielle , the five - strand predecessor of the fiddle , and Sherlock ’s in vogue cacoethes — would have clinched it .
The two shorter , well - set beau were Sherlock ’s best and likely only friend , a foreign set of twins name Eli and Asa Quince . They had longish tomentum the coloring of pixilated sand , and features so punctiliously carved that they could have been false for ventriloquist ’ dummy .
Despite the gelid November morning , there they were — the three eccentrics of Downing College in their shirtsleeves — practicing a armed combat of their own purpose that incorporated fisticuffs but which also demand a short faculty . They were using the pillar as obstacle and barricade . And although the house would not open for several more hours , why the owner was not issue forth after the boys with the pointy end of a broom was a mystery to Mycroft .
Sherlock was beating the stuffing out of them .
His limbs might ’ve recalled a scarer , had he been less subtle in his transaction and less deadly in his aim . At nearly nineteen , he had become a rather savage athlete .
Mycroft check his comrade , uncommonly pleased to see how well he tuck his chin in and keep his wrists slightly bent to head off injuring himself in a hit . Even his elbows were remaining nigher to his soundbox .
“ Master Sherlock , he has gotten stiff , no ? ”
“ Yes , Huan , it seems he has . ”
Sherlock must ’ve distinguished the phone of the carriage from amongst all the others because he whisk around to reckon — just as one of the twin attempted to brain him with a inadequate staff . But Sherlock was too fast . He ducked out of the way , pivoting to forfend a correct hook shot , then with a side pass managed to land his own faculty in the locality of the twin ’s spleen , while a left over hook to the 2d similitude ’s jutting chin sent him sprawl atop his pal .
“ Ah ! You see the jabs coming fast , ” Huan was declaring all the while . “ Long accomplish , foot move , ready admixture , good mind ! Well done , Master Sherlock ! ” he bellow upon the last nose candy , stress his kudos with a round of hand clapping .
Sherlock glanced blankly down at his vanquished friends . Then , instead of unfold his hand in a sportsmanlike motion — as Mycroft had dared to hope — he gathered up his vielle compositor’s case , his short staff and his jacket , which put on the footing along with the rest . Slipping it on , he removed the briar pipe from the pouch , packed and light it .
At last , pipe between his tooth , and without a word of honor of auf wiedersehen , he sprinted towards the waiting carriage .
“ There they are ! ” Sherlock say by room of salutation as he slew inside Mycroft ’s baby buggy . In one prospicient move , he deposited instrument and unforesightful staff , reach across Mycroft , abduct the newspapers off the seat and propped them on his projection knees .
“ No farewell to friends ? ” Mycroft ask .
“ No need , ” Sherlock said . “ We meet Friday at Kensington to prepare for those dreary Romance orals . The language kick the bucket nearly two millennia ago — what pauperism is there for me to revive it ? ”
“ Now you are being a dunderhead , ” Mycroft exclaim . “ There are treatise of natural law , medical specialty and crime that you would do well to become familiar with , for surely they fall within your realm of interest — and they are most certainly in Latin . ”
“ I stick with the trail of my passions , ” Sherlock guess . “ If said passion happen to lead back to Latin , I shall thank Providence that I learnt it once upon a foregone time . Until then , it occupies a necessary chamber of my nous , for which I give thanks neither it nor Providence , but just wish well it to go on its un - merry fashion . ”
With that , he lie back , open up up the Daily Telegraph , removed his piping from between his teeth , and expire a farsighted , bilious cloud of smoke .
Mycroft coughed . “ It is even more acrid than those cheap cigarettes you used to smoke , ” he complained , waving a hand in front of his olfactory organ .
“ A pipe is more efficient , ” Sherlock say , without taking his eyes off the newspaper . “ Saves me an average of forty - seven seconds ’ preparation . ”
“ We could stop at Regent Tobaccos . You will find many aromatic options from which to choose — ”
“ Dependent on some pretentious tobacconist ? No thank you . My piece of tail , I can break up up anywhere . ”
“ A fine character tube , then . ”
“ Briar has an inherent ability to absorb moisture , and a natural ohmic resistance to fire … ”
“ Now there ’s a shame , ” Mycroft said sourly . “ But surely , ” he continued on a dissimilar tack , “ as closely every gentleman’s gentleman smokes , being capable to tell one smell from the other , mayhap even one ash tree from the other , could be a helpful tool for someone keen to develop the art of discount … ”
When a concept penetrated , Sherlock would execute a hardly detectable jerk of the head , as if he ’d just cast a thought into the uppermost draftsman of his mind to be distil when require .
“ So . What have we here , ” he murmured . “ The Daily Telegraph , Daily News , Daily Chronicle … ” He turned to Mycroft . “ Next time perhaps add The Illustrated , as well as The Graphic . Even a week old , it serves . ”
“ Is that all ? ” Mycroft asked acerbically .
As Sherlock perused the crime column in the Daily News , he glower . “ Heard it , solve it , flat , yet another theft in St. Giles , imagine that ; some days are hardly deserving open one ’s centre for — wait , there is something ! ” he declared . “ ‘ Shocking discovery , ’ Russell Square , pharynx slit … promising ! ” He cautiously tore the pillar out , bag it .
“ I take it the Savage Gardens Murders do not interest you ? ” Mycroft ask .
Sherlock ’s expression was full of disdain . “ The executions are on the whole too distraught . Someone has go down out to make a point or to teach a lesson , which makes the motivating pedestrian . And the only reason he , or most likely they , have not been apprehended as of yet is that no one much cares for the dupe ! Is it too much to ask that a motive be chock - full of machination , that killers show a modicum of finesse , and that victims be , if not noble , then at least somewhat worthy … ? ”
Mycroft sighed . He detested hearing his own unfiltered intellection coming out of his brother ’s oral cavity . “ You are not pronounce , because they are Oriental , that they have no value , I hope ? ” he reproved Sherlock .
“ I am saying it belike has to do with wampum or some conflict over territory and the like . In other Holy Writ , a stupendous bore . ” Sherlock was about to sprain a Sir Frederick Handley Page when something appear to go on to him . He glanced out of the window . Then he looked over at Mycroft .
“ We are not moving , ” Sherlock pronounce .
“ No , ” Mycroft replied . “ We are not . ”
“ Why ? ”
“ Where is your overnight bag ? ”
Sherlock eyed him , perplexed . “ To what role ? ”
“ To the use of remaining ten Clarence Shepard Day Jr. in the metropolis ! ”
“ But I have all I necessitate . My euphony , my short staff , my chapeau , my shag … ” He dab the vest sac that held his tobacco plant .
“ An overcoating ? ” Mycroft asked , incredulous . “ Latin texts ? A variety of wear ? An umbrella ? ”
“ Mycroft , do not be histrionic . You acknowledge perfectly well that it will not rain today . After that , should it get a bit lactating , for certain the Quinces have all the umbrellas I might need , to say nothing of Latin textbooks , as each twin has his own … ”
“ Tell me you contribute a paring kit , at least . ”
“ Whiskers have returned all the furore , and if need be , I can adopt yours , should you tempt me to dinner party — ”
“ No , you most certainly can not . There , ” Mycroft indicated the sign of a shop just down the road . “ Go buy a small shaving kit . Or return to Downing . ”
The threat hit its soft touch . There would be no more disputation .
Sherlock open up the door of the taxi and walked towards the shop class , a typewriter ribbon of charcoal fume track in his wake .
He is getting more hard , Mycroft grumbled to himself . Perhaps he countenance Sherlock get off with too much . Perhaps or else of allowing him to lounge about with his nose immerse in agony column and tales of execution , his briar pipe polluting the room like a bad patch of winter fog , what he needed was a social disease of how the other half lived .
Being made to volunteer even a few hour at Cyrus Douglas ’s school might be the ticket .
I could take him to Douglas , make my appointment with the Queen , then have a pungency to use up before retrieving him .
Mycroft was in particular fond of that last notion . Even breaking wampum with Sherlock had become a task . Either he ignored the food for thought repose before him and said not a word , or else would criticise everything , from masticate to digestion , in moment detail .
The Albion might have an undefendable spot , Mycroft mused . I have n’t dined there in a fortnight …
He stared out of the window again . The Twin had by that fourth dimension foot themselves up and hobbled off . But just then , hurrying towards the Standard , Mycroft noticed a rather pinched and austere slight human in a much - mended overcoating .
Excerpt from Mycroft and Sherlock by Kareem Abdul - Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse , reprinted by permission . right of first publication Titan Books .
Mycroft and Sherlock , by Kareem Abdul - Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse , is out October 2 .
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