Elementary: Blood and Ink

Elementary #2

by Adam Christopher

The Chief Financial Officer of a secretive NYC hedge fund has been found murdered—stabbed through the eye with an expensive fountain pen. When Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson discover a link between the victim and a charismatic management guru with a doubtful past, it seems they may have their man. But is the guru being framed? 

As secrets are revealed and another victim is found murdered in the same grisly fashion, Holmes and Watson begin to uncover a murky world of money and deceit…

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Media Tie In, Mystery Thriller, Ebooks, Detective

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 23, 2016

About the author

New York Times Bestselling author Adam Christopher’s debut novel EMPIRE STATE was SciFiNow’s Book of the Year and a Financial Times Book of the Year. The author of MADE TO KILL, STANDARD HOLLYWOOD DEPRAVITY, and KILLING IS MY BUSINESS, Adam’s other novels include SEVEN WONDERS, THE AGE ATOMIC, and THE BURNING DARK.

Author of the official tie-in novels for the Netflix phenomenon STRANGER THINGS, the hit CBS television show ELEMENTARY and the award-winning DISHONORED video game franchise, Adam is also the co-creator of the 21st century incarnation of Archie Comics superhero The Shield, and has also contributed prose fiction to the world of Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s LAZARUS series from Image Comics.

Adam is a contributor to the internationally bestselling STAR WARS: FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW anniversary anthology series, and has written for the all-ages Star Wars Adventures comic from IDW. His debut Star Wars novel, SHADOW OF THE SITH, was published in 2022 and was an instant New York Times Bestseller.

Born in New Zealand, Adam has lived in Great Britain since 2006.

Reviews

[Sarah (is clearing her shelves) · Rating 2 out of 5]

28/6 - I haven't read a good crime/mystery thriller in quite a while, unfortunately after finally finishing this book I'm still waiting.

I love Elementary and watch it religiously, especially the first two seasons. The channel it plays on in Australia has played seasons one and two about six times, only just now getting to season three (currently up to episode 18) and when it finishes they'll probably take us back to the beginning all over again. I keep watching those first two seasons because that way I can keep track of it and don't have to worry about missing it when they start showing a season I haven't seen. When I saw this book on the new and recently returned shelf at the library I was quite excited to read a new story from the Elementary world. This didn't live up to the expectations set by the tv show. Most of the story was told from Joan's point of view and if you took this book at face value I'd be questioning Holmes' faith in Watson, because being in Watson's head was quite boring and unenlightening. I think (I hope) Joan's deductive reasoning was dumbed down for the reader who couldn't quite make the deductive leaps that Joan does in the show. I've taken the below excerpt from pages 62-64 (remember that the murder weapon is a fountain pen, not a spoiler as we're told this on the back of the book)

'"Did you find something?"
Ah, alas not," said Holmes. "I was speaking purely theoretically. Our victim was fastidious in his neatness, it seems."
"Tell me about it. I've never seen a desk so tidy. But it seems our victim didn't use fountain pens."
Watson held up her discovery - a small oblong box of white card. There was an open flap at one end, with a scuff and tear indicating where a piece of tape had once sealed the opening. Watson shook the box, and it rattled. Then she peeled back the flap and turned the opening toward Holmes so he could see.
Holmes pursed his lips. "Pen refill cartridges."
"Ballpoint pen refills," said Watson, extracting a thin gold cylinder between a finger and thumb. "And the box has been opened. This looks like it's come from the office stationery cupboard - no marking or label, so probably from a bulk supply."
Holmes glanced at the desk. "But no sign of any pens, ballpoint or otherwise."
[...] Unimportant couple of paragraphs showing why they don't need to look for ballpoint pens.
Watson frowned. "But like you said, there are no pens in this office. I guess he had a favourite he carried around with him."
"And yet," said Holmes, "the only pen found at the crime scene was embedded four inches into the man's cranium."
"A pen that apparently wasn't his."
Holmes cocked his head at Watson. "Apparently so, although hardly a concrete deduction."
With this, he strode to the office door and stepped through, quickly. Watson followed, but by the time she reached the doorway Holmes was far ahead, striding out across the open-plan area of the main office.
Watson stopped in the doorway to watch. As Holmes came to each desk in the main office, he paused, casting an eye over it with a look of grim determination, before moving to the next. If there was a person at the desk, he ignored them - and their protests - even when his search involved wheeling a chair - with the workers still on it - out of the way to pull open a drawer. After a few moments of this everyone in the office was watching him along with Watson.
As Holmes completed a circuit of the office, Watson headed around the other side to head him off.
"What are you looking for?" she asked.
Holmes stopped, his arms ramrod straight by his side.
"The murderer," he said, before ducking to Watson's left to continue his bizarre mission down the centre aisle of desks. At the first he stopped a little longer to examine the contents of two drawers before moving to the next.
Then Watson realized what he was doing.'

Why did it take Watson, Holmes' protégé in the art of deductive reasoning, so long to realise what he was doing when it was clear to me from the moment he started looking? It was at this point that I started to feel like the book was written for younger readers who had zero powers of deduction and were unable to work anything out on their own. From this point on I frequently felt like the book was taking great pains to explain very obvious deductions to me and that made me frustrated with all the extra laying out of the plot that happened. I reckon 20+ pages of unnecessary explanations could have been excised from the book with hardly any effort.

I did not guess who was behind the killings until a few pages before it was revealed, but it had to be who it was, unless Christopher was going to introduce a completely new character to take the part of the big boss, because all the other secondary characters had already been ruled out or killed.

I might consider giving the author/series another go, but I certainly won't be searching for Elementary: The Ghost Line at the library.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know what? I'm giving this four stars anyway. I don't think it's as good as book 1. And it's not as good as the TV show, obviously. But it's filling the Elemetary-shaped hole in my heart and it deserves some recognition! I love the writing style. I like that there are multiple povs in the story. It's a bit boring at some parts but hey, what can you do? This is a mystery about the death of a hedge fund manager or whatever his occupation was. All Elementary episodes related to Business are boring for me anyway so it was fine. I really like the dialogue because I can not only imagine them speaking, I can vividly hear them speaking in that sort of tone. I have a very good imagination but usually with novelizations, you can't hear the character speak so that's another plus in my book.

In conclusion, it's not perfect by any means. It's certainly lacking in some parts. But I nevertheless enjoyed it. And let's be honest. Any book that can distract me from the fucking coup for an hour deserve at least 4 stars.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this TV show. The books aren't quite as fun, but still enjoyable.

[Brian Tooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how I have missed the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson. What a great book!!!

[Laura T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mice quick read for fans of the tv series, it has the cadence of those characters just right. I enjoyed their interactions and the case wasn't too tedious.

[C.O. Bonham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elementary: Blood and Ink is a tie-in novel based on the TV show of the same name.

The plot is compelling enough to be a stand alone mystery and foreknowledge of the TV show or Sherlock Holmes is not required to enjoy this book. Though Fans of the TV show will, of course, find many geeky nuggets to enjoy.

My one complaint about characterization is this: Watson comes across as a sci-fi geek dropping references to both Star Trek and Douglas Adams. I personally found the references amusing and my geeky heart thrilled to read them, but in the TV show there is nothing about the character that suggests she is a closet geek. These seem to be instances of the author's own geekiness leaking through.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murder by . . . . a vintage fountain pen?

There were a couple of errors in this book, the major one being a date continuity error (unless I'd been utterly confused, especially since it'd been written on the same page.)

But I think Holmes could have been more, well . . . Holmes. I think the writing of his character could have been pushed to its usual level as it is on the show.

Still, not a bad read. It was an interesting and twisted mystery. Money is almost always the cause.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was better than the first book by far, the narrative was interesting and took a while to work out which made it a fun and engaging read. The characters were better developed this time around but that may be that I was more familiar with the writing style compared to the first book. It’s still jarring to read about characters you’ve seen on TV as they often do things in the book that isn’t familiar which is a shame given the TV series came first.

[Lora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elementary was a great show, so this was a fun reunion. I probably wouldn't have rated it as high if I wasn't a fan. There was an especially engaging scene of Watson taking down a suspect, and another fun example of the the hacktivist group "Everyone" making Holmes doing something embarrassing as payment for a favor.

This book is from 2016, so I'm sad that both the show and the book series have apparently come to an end.

[Rachel Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

A competent police procedural with a good dollop of misdirection to keep the reader a half step behind Holmes and Watson right to the end, the characterization is exceptional and felt more like the novelization of a TV episode at times rather than an original story, the nuances of character are spot on imho, making it a joy to read.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed Christopher's other Elementary book, but this one ... dragged. Nothing much interesting about the characters; nothing really involving about the mystery; Holmes seems basically a bundle of disconnected gestures.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful Elementary tie-in novel from Adam Christopher. Highly recommend this book to fans of the show & anyone who enjoys a good crime novel.

[Jolie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, fast read, with a good dose of feeling like an episode of the series. Entertaining!

[Rob Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfectly captures the feel of the TV series and could easily be adapted into an episode. Highly recommended!

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried starting it 4 times and never got farther than page 48. Disappointing.

[Mikey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second of two tie-in novels, theres not a lot I can say about Blood and Ink that I haven’t already said about The Ghost Line. The plot feels true to the spirit of the show, with an intriguing mystery, strong characterisation for all of the main cast, and a quick and engaging pace that keeps things rattling along nicely.

It was almost disappointing reaching the end because there weren’t any more books to come after, but it’s been nice to have these two books to dip back into the world of Elementary.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Elementary: Blood and Ink" by Adam Christopher is quite good for a media tie-in novel. The author does quite well in capturing the spirit and the characterizations of this revisionist version of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson from the "Elementary" TV show on CBS.

The plot is both simple and convoluted. The CFO of a secretive hedge fund is found murdered in squalid circumstances. The evidence points towards a popular motivational speaker who has no obvious connection to the victim.

The novel format gives the author more space to go into the details of the case than the TV show format would allow. For this case, that's helpful. There are a lot of obvious suspects, but it takes serious digging to uncover the truth.

My one complaint was that one character seems to be a lot older than they actually turned out to be, which pertains to the solution of the case. In that small way, I felt a bit cheated by the author because of that.

And, to me, the entire case is a bit...dry. It has some good elements for drama, but it all adds up to a little too much about the ins and outs of the financial world for my tastes. But I felt like I was watching a longer episode of the "Elementary" TV show while I was reading "Blood and Ink." And that's why I gave the book three stars.

You don't need to be a fan of the "Elementary" TV show to follow the action in "Blood and Ink," but knowledge of the TV show will help explain the various relationships between the investigators. If you're hungry for more Holmes and Watson than you can get from re-runs, "Blood and Ink" is not a bad way to fulfill your craving.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blood & Ink is, to my mind, weaker than the first book in the Elementary series (Ghost Train). It still feels very much like an episode of the series (Gregson is rendered particularly well), but it lacked the depth and quality of the first book. Some of the lack of appeal might come from having Watson serve almost exclusively as the narrator this time around. Personally I find her to be flat and unemotional in the series and she was the same here as well. Fans of Joan may well feel very differently but I, for one, very much hope Sherlock is returned to the primary narrator role in book 3. He tends to produce a more interesting and emotional read, at least for me.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book through a giveaway here on Goodreads.
I really enjoy the Elementary TV series, so I thought this book would be good as well. This book is not written by the same the creator of the TV series and the author has another book for this series.

The book was good. It really helped to understand Holmes per the TV show. His mannerisms and accent helped when reading. I think the book followed the story line that the show would have followed as well. I would read more from this author.

[Mary Beth Str8K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I had had the time to read this in one sitting. I think I would've enjoyed it even more. A CFO of a financial firm is murdered with a $30,000 pen through his eye. If I had read the book in one sitting, I think I would've gotten swept up in the story. Instead, the tempo of action was slower and disjointed. There was no sense of urgency to find the killer. The characters reminded me of the TV show's stars and I did envision them while reading. I do recommend the book, but try and read it in a 24-48 hours!

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the second time author Adam Christopher brings Sherlock Holmes & Joan Watson, from the TV series Elementary, to life in an original novel. While the murders may be interesting the world of hedge funds & banking are less than gripping. A good effort, but not up to the standard of Christopher's previous Elementary story The Ghost Line.

[Jeff Patchett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderfully thought out and executed story by this author. An enjoyable romp through Manhattan as Shelock aided by Watson pieces together the clues to solve another murder.
The author captures the essence of "Elementary" so well and ensures for the reader many happy hours accompanying the duo as the story unfolds.
Looking forward to reading the next book.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this is a awesome story. It was quick-paced and interesting. My attention was caught from the very beginning and never waned. I would start reading and before I knew it, I had read 20 or 30 pages. I loved the interaction between Watson and Holmes. I haven't really watched the show, but this story was great.

I received this book from a Goodreads Giveaway.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In all honesty this was probably a three star book but the mental image of Joan popping up from the backseat of a car and threatening a murder suspect with a jam spoon is worth a star by itself. A solid read overall, Christopher successfully transferred the characters from the screen to the page in such a way that I could see them in my minds eye as I read.

[Janet Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story great characters!

Great story very complicated but very absorbing!
A man is found dead with a fountain pen stuck in his eye, and that's where it starts! Holmes & Watson at their best! Looking forward to reading any more!

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, kept me guessing

I did enjoy this book, though not as much as his other Elementary book. The characters were, of course, comfortably familiar. The mystery itself kept me guessing and wondering. All in all, an enjoyable read.

[Helen]

I watch elementary on TV and very much enjoyed reading this book that I received as part of the good reads giveaway.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book free from Goodreads giveaway

Good thriller storyline with an interesting twist on Sherlock and Watson

[ian maher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

Only wish there were more Books in the series the two that there are, are simply great books that are impossible to put down

[Calvin Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a full 4 stars, but a good read, that was very much in the flavour of TV show. Did we the big baddie as a bit obvious sadly.