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It is 1914,  Sherlock Holmes has been lying in his grave for 20 years. Professor James Moriarty, Holmes’s killer and mastermind rival looks gravely upon Holmes’s grave. You see, he appears to have lost his mojo somewhat since Holmes’s untimely demise. He has changed his name to Trumbold and is a shadow of his former criminal mastermind self. With the thrill of keeping one step ahead of Holmes removed, he no longer feels alive.

This first issue is somewhat slow out of the thing horses start racing in. This is perhaps expected of a detective story in which there is as yet no clear crime or motive, but there is mystery…lots of mystery in fact…and peril!

Mycroft Holmes is missing (Sherlock’s brother), so is a professor who might have been up to no good, and with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by the Black Hand group, it looks as though the world might just end. Are these events connected? Probably, but we’ll just have to wait to find out.

Moriarty appears to take on the role of the late Sherlock Holmes, investigating the disappearance of Sherlock’s brother on the payroll of MI5. however his methods differ from Holmes’s as he uses his substantial, yet somewhat dusty underworld connections to solve the mystery at hand.

Whereas sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes would unexpectedly catch his baddie and then spend half the story explaining how he solved the crime, Corey’s Moriarty explains every little clue as he finds them in sometimes tedious detail through first person narrative. Although in places this can be tiresome, it is a necessary storytelling element in absence of a sidekick for Moriarty to aimlessly blabber too! It also makes sure you don’t miss the clues (see… it’s clever!).

I think the first in the series of a detective drama can be excused a slow start in order to get the plot grounded. It does this well and adds suspense and easily enough intrigue and mystery to reel you in for a second helping. With Ninjas, assassins and a mysterious mechanical device being constructed by a secret society at the brink of World War I, we can be sure all hell will kick off in #2… or #3?

Colour me intrigued. Sherlock Holmes or general detective fans should be also.

John Paul de Quay.