Publisher, HighBridge Audio (April 2005)

Listen to an MP3 audio clip.

". . . an ambitious, beautifully written novel. . . ." —Publishers Weekly * Starred Review (HC)

He's 93 years old, in retirement in Sussex, beginning to lose his memory, and subject to emotions he has resisted all his life. His name is Sherlock Holmes.

It's 1947, and the long-retired Holmes lives in a remote Sussex farmhouse with a housekeeper and her young son, Roger. Holmes has recently returned from war-torn Japan and settled into the routine of tending his apiary, writing in his journals, and grappling with the waning powers of his once razor-sharp mind. Then Roger secretly searches Holmes's private study and uncovers the case of Mrs. Keller, the long-ago object of the legendary sleuth's deep—and never acknowledged—infatuation.

As Cullin weaves together Holmes's hidden past, his poignant struggle to retain mental acuity, and his unlikely relationship with Roger, who stirs his paternal affection, a mythic figure is transformed into an ordinary man. At once an engrossing mystery and a gripping character study, A Slight Trick of the Mind is an affecting and original portrait of literature's most beloved detective in the twilight of his illustrious life.