Mycroft Holmes (novel) seek answers. Holmes and Douglas follow her to the island and are confronted with dark mysteries. Having been a fan of the original Sherlock Holmes stories as a child, Abdul-Jabbar specifically chose to write about Mycroft as he felt that there was already an abundance of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Reading Michael P. Hodel and Sean M. Wright's "Enter the Lion: A Posthumous Memoir of Mycroft Holmes" caused Abdul-Jabbar to realize "more could be done with this ‘older, smarter’ character and his window on to the highest levels of British government – at a time when Britain was the most powerful
Gentleman detective gentleman than Holmes, yet has no social reservations about beginning his long association with the detective. In the best traditions of the gentry, Holmes proves to be physically brave, and competent with fists, sword and pistol. Like the earlier Dupin and the later Lord Peter Wimsey (see below), Holmes is also a competent cryptanalyst (for instance, The Dancing Men, 1903). Conan Doyle never gave much background about Holmes' family, but his hero was apparently born in 1854 (estimated from His Last Bow, 1917). He also has an eccentric older brother, Mycroft Holmes, a senior public servant and member of the