A Samba for Sherlock

This book involves several historical figures that meet in Rio during a crime wave by a serial killer. Beware, the murders are violent and bloody. It also, uses many literary, cultural, musical and drama references; kind of like the author was trying to impress himself. This is OK if you are well read but is just 'stuff' in the background if you are not.

When a Stradivarius that was a gift from Peter the Second disapears, Shelock Holmes and Dr. Watson decide to travel to Brazil in order to unravel the mystery. The detective is not as sucessful in this story as he was in the tales of Conan Doyle, and the funny situations keep showing up in this delightful story by Jo Soares. You cannot miss this!

It's unusual for a light novel such as this to succeed on so many counts.The humour is less compressed and explosive than Dave Barry's but with something of the same glee in odd combinations; extended over episodes or even chapters, the effect reminds me of Stephen Leacock's gentler cleverness.The drama is well-timed, keeping one off guard. Just as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" took viewers by surprise-we were all expecting the funeral to come at the end-so the sequence of murders here is paced to avoid predictability. In the one or two scenes were action is called for, Soares is up to the task, with lighting and other atmospheric effects bringing out a suitably evocative, even lurid, tableau. By and large, though, this is not a "thriller", rather a witty period piece that challenges the reader with a murder mystery.The descriptions of Brazil at the end of the empire (the story takes place in Rio in 1886) are finely done and, apparently, based on extensive research. It actually helps, though, for the reader not to know too much about the period, since if one recognises a character as being historical one can rule him or her out as a suspect; ignorance of Brazil's rich literary history is, in this case, an advantage.Those who know Brazil, however, will enjoy Soares' entertaining references to cultural standbys such as capoeira, the caipirinha and so on, yet the effect will not be lost on those "outside the loop"; for example, Holmes' first exposure to Brazilian food is hilarious even if you haven't actually tasted dishes cooked with dendê.The translation (by Clifford Landers) is probably the best I've ever met of a Brazilian novel in English, fluent and energetic with never a foot wrong.Yes, I did guess the murderer's identity about two thirds of the way through the book-but then I couldn't be sure I'd got it right, and I was kept reading closely until the very end by plot developments which it would be unfair to divulge.This is a splendid book, and I only hope that Landers will soon translate Soares' next novel. In the meantime, "A Samba for Sherlock" is highly recommended for a general readership.

I've read the other reviews on this book, and i'm sad to see that 90% of the North American readers (myself included) bought this book expecting a traditional Holmes adventure. I have to admit that as soon as i got into this reading i noticed this could not be serious...so, i decided to read it as a joke, and guess what: it was not bad at all, in fact, it was a very entertaining book, full of humor and extremely light reading... I'm a big Holmes fan, but the people who rated this book as being the worst ever writen with the character of Sherlock Holmes are idiots who treat a ficcional character as a religion! Folks, Sherlock Holmes never existed, ok? The reviews i read about this book are the type of reviews you can expect from a bunch of Catholic priests reading Carl Sagan...sorry i had to read those, the book is awesome!

I have read this book in Portuguese. After reading all the reviews posted here, I decided to write my own, from a Brazilian perspective. I fully understand the opinions of the Sherlock aficionados that hated the book, but there are some observations I must make: 1) This book is not about a Sherlock Holmes that goes to a tropical country (Brazil), but it is about a "Brazil" that welcomes a Sherlock Holmes. In other words, the main character is not Holmes, but the 19th century Rio de Janeiro society. 2) Soares is a comediant, so for anyone who knows him, it is not a surprise that he would make fun of Holmes and everything else. (Note how he depicts the Brazilian society; it is a lot worse than what he does to Holmes!!!). 3) Brazil has a society that tends to "Brazilianize" all the foreign elements (and immigrants) that arrive in the country. I think that's what Soares tried to do with Sherlock Holmes. By the way, from a Brazilian point of view, Holmes attitudes were very praisable, while Watson seemed to be too closed to new cultural experiences. As a last comment, I would like to say that the American publisher should have tried to give a better idea of the book on its cover and back cover text. This way, the traditional Sherlock aficionados could avoid the book or understand it better.

First, in interests of full disclosure, I am not totally impartial: I translated the book. Having said that, I can affirm that of the more than a dozen Brazilian novels that I have translated, A Samba for Sherlock was far and away the most fun. When Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart colleague Dr. Watson are summoned to Rio de Janeiro by Brazil's Emperor Dom Pedro II, it's with the understanding that Holmes will help locate a Stradivarius violin stolen from a beautiful baroness, one of the emperor's numerous paramours. But before the Englishmen arrive, a series of horrifying murders breaks out to disrupt this placid tropical paradise. A maniac is killing and mutilating young women, most of them prostitutes, and secreting on the body of each victim a string from a violin... Sherlock coins the term "serial killer" (now we know where it originated) to describe the assassin, and there begins a hunt that takes the reader on an rollercoaster of emotions ranging from guffaws to sheer terror and back again. Jo Soares has seamlessly blended historical figures (Sarah Bernhardt, then on her triumphant first South American tour, is a major character) with those borrowed from Conan Doyle and others created from his own fertile, original mind. The result is a page-turner that once started is impossible to put down. The novel is currently being made into the most expensive movie ever in Brazil. --Reviewed by Clifford E. Landers