The Secret Diary of Mycroft Holmes Review

First of all, a word of warning: this isn’t a crime novel, despite the fact that it mentions Sherlock Holmes very regularly. Instead, the book gives a nice view into the mind of Mycroft Holmes and into the complicated and not at all normal Holmes family. Trust me - Mycroft and Sherlock are actually the two most normal members.

The diary claims to include the time from 1880 to 1888, but most of the actual diary entries are from early on (1880-1882), latter years only feature with a handful of entries, especially after Sherlock moves into Baker Street.

I read the book almost in one go - mostly because I actually started it in the evening and ran out of time. The diary is written from the point of view of Mycroft Holmes (rather logical, given that it’s his diary) and starts off on the 1st of January 1880. Mycroft has decided that if people can have their memoir written simply because they have ‘lived’ and if someone can fill several diaries with arguments with his wife, theatre visits, fire, and the plague, he can do a good job with his own life as well. It might be missing the wife and he’s not into theatre visits, fires might be confined to the hearth, and the plague wasn’t an actual problem in 1880, but he still has a life inside his government job. Not to mention he has a younger brother who seems set on tormenting him.

In the very first entry, which more or less sets the tone for the rest, Mycroft remembers how his brother arrived in the family - seven years after him and as a surprise to their father. Their mother had simply ‘forgotten’ to mention her state a few months earlier, because she was distracted by the new fashion. This (together with the fact that their parents got married, because his mother misheard a question from his father) is pretty much all you would need to know about the Holmes clan. But the other members of the family as they are mentioned are pretty weird as well. It seems the clan is pretty entertaining, as long as you don’t belong to it and have to owe up to being a Holmes.

In 1880, with Mycroft being 33 and Sherlock 26, the brothers are already orphaned, both of their parents are dead. Mycroft has a certain income inherited from their father and, of course, his salary from his government job (which is officially situated within accounting, but unofficially intelligence). Sherlock has nearly no income, because he’s still in the early stages of his career (the Montague Street years, before his move to Baker Street) and often takes cases merely out of interest, without demanding fees from his customers. Quite often, Mycroft is the one to pay his rent or other bills. This changes when the government changes (a new prime minister is elected and the government positions are thinned out) and Mycroft’s salary is reduced for a while.

Sherlock takes an argument they have a little later as motivation to change things, moves into Baker Street with Watson (whom Mycroft first takes for a lunatic - because who else would actually want to share rooms with Sherlock?), and starts taking regular fees from the customers. He builds up his reputation and really goes into the ‘trade’ he has worried Mycroft with (because, apparently, no member of the Holmes family has ever been a tradesman).

This doesn’t mean that there’s no mention of any cases. When Sherlock and Mycroft meet (usually in the Diogenes club - the diary makes Mycroft one of the founders), they often duel each other in deduction and every now and then even discuss a case. Mycroft himself solves a minor case of destruction in the club as well. The book, however, is not about any mysteries (except the mystery of how Mycroft and Sherlock actually get along well enough to meet more or less regularly). It’s a very nice read if you enjoy a look into other people’s minds.

It also shines a bright light on the chaotic Holmes clan. As mentioned above, compared to their aunts, uncles, cousins, and deceased parents, Sherlock and Mycroft actually are pretty normal. Their cousin Aubrey, for instance, tries his hands at art and poetry and chains himself to the railway, because he thinks fast travel is the worst which can happen to mankind. After his muse leaves him for a more wealthy guy, he considers the Foreign Legion, but balks at the thought of having to carry a gun and live in the desert. He also regularly tries to weasel money out of Mycroft, who seems to be the only Holmes with a regular income. Two of their cousins get into a food fight during a christening and Mycroft mentions that physical fights between the female members of the family (for something as trivial as wearing the same item of clothing) are not unusual. I have to admit I now want more stories about them. Perhaps the diary from after 1888?

The relationship between Mycroft and Sherlock is very interesting, because it’s pretty much a ‘normal’ relationship between two brothers - not what you might expect after reading the stories and novels by Doyle. The book has a light-hearted tone most of the time and Mycroft manages to make his rather regular life interesting by switching between his arguments with Sherlock, his work for the government, his time in the Diogenes club, and frequent memories of the Holmes clan.

Is “The Secret Diary of Mycroft Holmes” a good read? Definitely. Is it a typical Holmes story? Not at all. I’d suggest using the ‘Look Inside’ feature and seeing if you like the writing style. Just don’t expect it to be a mystery story.