London. A snowy December, 1888. Sherlock Holmes, 34, is languishing and back on cocaine after a disastrous Ripper investigation. Watson can neither comfort nor rouse his friend until a strangely encoded letter arrives from Paris. Mlle La Victoire, a beautiful French cabaret star writes that her illegitimate son by an English lord has disappeared, and she has been attacked in the streets of Montmartre. Racing to Paris with Watson at his side, Holmes discovers the missing child is only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger problem. The most valuable statue since the Winged Victory has been violently stolen in Marseilles, and several children from a silk mill in Lancashire have been found murdered. The clues in all three cases point to a single, untouchable man. Will Holmes recover in time to find the missing boy and stop a rising tide of murders? To do so he must stay one step ahead of a dangerous French rival and the threatening interference of his own brother, Mycroft. This latest adventure, in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sends the iconic duo from London to Paris and the icy wilds of Lancashire in a case which tests Watson's friendship and the fragility and gifts of Sherlock Holmes' own artistic nature to the limits."

本作はドイルの文体を精緻に継承しつつ、名探偵が抱える「脆さと芸術的狂気」をえぐり出した至高のパスティーシュです。タイトルの通り、彼の血脈に流れる芸術家気質が、推理の原動力であると同時に彼自身を蝕む諸刃の剣として描かれています。切り裂きジャック事件の挫折に喘ぎ、薬物に溺れるホームズの魂の彷徨は、読者の胸を激しく打ちます。 美しき彫像の盗難と児童労働の闇が交錯する中、ワトスンとの絆やマイクロフトとの対立を通じて、冷徹な探偵が「人間」としての極限に挑む姿は圧巻です。ヴィクトリア朝の凍てつく空気感と、血を流してでも真実を希求する高潔な情熱。知性と感性が火花を散らす、現代に蘇った正統かつ独創的な叙事詩をぜひ体感してください。