I'm a bit confused by the mere suggestion that there's a "politcal agenda" afoot in this impressively written novel, unless there's another version floating around set during World War II and with Sherlock Holmes flying co-pilot on the Enola Gay. Otherwise, A Slight Trick of the Mind is a splendidly lucid and meditative look at the diverse phenomena of human remembering. Set in equal parts in Victorian England, post-war Japan of 1947 and not at all during the war, and rural Sussex, the book is revealing in three stories that come together into one haunting note. As an examination of grief and unrequited love it is a novel that also wrings at your heart. The fact that it stars Sherlock Holmes is pretty much a secondary concern, because Mitch Cullen's gift for both language and story-telling has given us a universal story most of us can relate to or will relate to. Read it for yourself and see.