In The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, prose magician Michael Chabon conjured the golden age of comic books, interwining history, legend and story-telling verve. In The Final Solution, he has condensed his boundless vision to create a short, suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that re-imagines the classic 19th-century detective story. In deep retirement in the English countryside, an 89-year old man, vaguely recollected by the locals...

Sherlock Holmes battles his arch rival, Professor Moriarty, who, aiding the Nazis, has kidnapped the inventor of a new bomb.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote of many dreadful murders, but the one which astonished and distressed readers the most was when the author, anxious to try something new, killed off Sherlock Holmes. Trapped in mortal combat with the dastardly Professor Moriarty, Holmes and his opponent plunged to their deaths in the Reichenbach Falls. For ten long years, Baker Street was without its most revered resident. Then, in 1903, Doyle took pity on his readers...

The shadows of war are drawing over the ancient city of Fez, and Holmes badly wants the wisdom and courage of his wife, who has gone missing. As Holmes searches for her, and Russell, suffering a temporary memory loss, searches for her "self," each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it's too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe.