海角大神

Stick a fork in me, folks 鈥� I鈥檓 done. I just read an outstanding young adult novel that eschews dystopia, vampires, zombies, and use of the acronym YOLO.

And it鈥檚 a witty Sherlock Holmes retelling.

And it's just the series opener.

And it's the debut book from this author, Heather W. Petty.

Reader, I devoured it.

This isn鈥檛 the Holmes you鈥檝e met before. This Sherlock is not the smartest in the world. He is not the most logical. He is not the hero. (Steady, chaps.)

He can鈥檛 hold that title because the hero of Lock & Mori is the peerless, the brilliant Miss James Moriarty, a.k.a. 鈥淢ori.鈥� And you will love her forever.

Mori is struggling to survive an annus horribilis. Her mother just lost a battle with cancer. Her best friend drifted away without so much as a text. Her father, an already-volatile London policeman, has dissolved into an unhinged, abusive husk. He crawls out of the bourbon bottle only to curse Mori, blame her for her mother鈥檚 death, and slug her as she shields her three young brothers.

Yet in these ugly circumstances, Mori keeps calm and carries on. She looks after her brothers, who turn to her for parenting and protection. She makes solid grades in school. She knows London like the back of her hand. Meanwhile, her public armor of standoffish sarcasm holds strong.

When she falls in with the eccentric Sherlock (a.k.a. Lock), whose mother is gravely ill, they bond over their grief and brilliance. One evening Lock drags her to a crime scene in Regent鈥檚 Park for intellectual calisthenics, where they discover that the victim is a classmate鈥檚 father.

As they dig deeper into an ever gnarlier pattern of murders, Mori and Lock develop a quirky and poignant relationship. The evidence they uncover will force Mori to face facts about herself and those she loves.

Petty unpacks Mori鈥檚 thought process at the crime scene by fusing Mori鈥檚 love of mathematics with her yen for clarity. It鈥檚 fantastically visual while 100% analytical:

鈥淚 knew nothing about solving crimes. I鈥檇 only ever associated that kind of work with my father, and we had never really gotten on, even before he became ... this. But perhaps there wasn鈥檛 any real trick to it after all. I supposed solving one thing was nearly like solving another. And if there was one thing I was good at, it was solving for X.

I decided to think of the crime as the steps in an equation.... Equations were easy. Put a pin into each of the things you know and then write the rules between the pins, like strings, connecting one pin to the next until you can solve for the missing parts.鈥�

This is a gifted student with an eidetic memory to boot; she calculates complex probabilities as a mental escape from the daily drudge of high school. It鈥檚 exciting to inhabit her mind.

For readers who question her choice of a female Moriarty, Petty slips in a preemptive strike. When Sherlock expresses surprise at a girl being named James, Mori retorts, 鈥淩eally? Sherlock wishes to discuss odd names with me?鈥�

Sherlock鈥檚 dry response: 鈥淎nd a point to Miss Moriarty.鈥� When he mentions later that his brother鈥檚 name is Mycroft, Mori can鈥檛 help but exclaim, 鈥淒id your mother despise you both from birth? Honestly.鈥� Their quick, clever banter goes down like the fizziest soda.

Each incarnation of the classic British detective () is unique in both characterization and setting, and .

Film buffs love the urbane Basil Rathbone, whose 1940s adaptation was timeless, erudite, and magnificent. The 1980s brought us Jeremy Brett in all his frenetic candor. In 2009 we met the bratty rapscallion Holmes of Robert Downey, Jr. Most recently we fell for the elegant and infuriating portrayal by Benedict Cumberbatch.

This comes amid a zeitgeist for hyperbrilliance, in which neurotic savants finally get their day in the sun. Consider the affection on display today for oddball brainiacs 鈥� people can鈥檛 get enough of Sheldon Cooper from 鈥淭he Big Bang Theory,鈥� Cumberbatch鈥檚 Sherlock, Hugh Laurie in 鈥淗ouse,鈥� even Ken Jennings of 鈥淛eopardy!鈥� fame. Sometimes the hottest viral video is a 10-minute TED talk!

It echoes the ardor we feel for modern tech giants like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, et al., and inventors like Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison. They're all peculiar in their own way, but they鈥檙e responsible for orbit-altering developments straight out of science fiction. We respect the heck out of them and are lucky to live in their world.

鈥淟ock & Mori鈥� adds a new layer to Arthur Conan Doyle鈥檚 pantheon: two brainy, tender-hearted kids attempting to protect each other from dangers beyond their ken. Almost all the usual suspects make an appearance: Moriarty, Sherlock, Mycroft, John Watson, even Mrs. Hudson. There鈥檚 no Inspector Lestrade, no Irene Adler, and no Toby, but catch the pipe reference if you can.

True to canon, this sleuthing tale is rife with intrigues, puzzles, and vivid danger. Read at your own peril 鈥� nothing is more electrifying than the hunt for truth.