Sherlock Holmes is a government official. Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. He lacks Sherlock's interest in physical investigation, however, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club. Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from fellow university students. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession, and he spent several years after university as a consultant before financial difficulties led him to accept John H.
Sherlock Holmes pastiches also makes a minor but significant appearance in Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's comic book series "Planetary". Michael P. Hodel and Sean M. Wright presented a mystery-adventure "Enter the Lion: A Posthumous Memoir of Mycroft Holmes" (1979) in which Sherlock's older brother prevents a conspiracy involving a return of the American "colonies" to Great Britain. Sherlock makes appearances with Victor Trevor (from The Adventure of the Gloria Scott), Professor Moriarty and Moriarty's father. Carole Nelson Douglas has written a spin-off series centring upon Holmes' nemesis Irene Adler. The first book is titled "Good Night, Mr. Holmes" and takes place concurrently