Sherlock and Devdas-Manav Vigg

Book: Sherlock and Devdas
Author: Manav Vigg
Publisher: Authors Upfront

Do you think crossovers can be interesting?

Sherlock & Devdas were never meant to be together. They belonged to different worlds and nested different conflicts. Early in his crime solving career, Sherlock is learning his way with deductions and is on the uphill path to his first big case. Devdas, on the other hand, is drunk and torn after Paro’s marriage, and is on his downhill path to self-destruction. But one unexpected event shook their worlds and brought them together. A heist. While Sherlock would have loved to prove himself as a detective alone, there are things known only to Devdas about the stolen artefacts. A modern twist on the legendary characters – Sherlock & Devdas pairs two completely opposite yet eccentric personalities in an epic adventurous journey.

The story is an interesting crossover of the two characters who are the two most celebrated characters in the literary world and have had retellings of their stories time and again, and most of them have gone on to acquire cult status. Manav creates a plot that brings these two unlikely characters into the same timeline and space to build an engaging story. The idea to set the book in Delhi, away from their natural locations was quite imaginative. He puts the best of the qualities of both the characters and uses them to solve the interesting case of the missing artefacts. The concept of the story is well planned, but the problem is in its execution. The book repurposes and reuses the signature dialogues of both of them and apart from these quirks, I don’t believe that these 2 characters didn’t add much value to the story. The climax seemed a bit stretched out and I think the overall reading experience could have been improved if the book had been a bit crisper.

Coming to the characters in the book, Manav has repurposed Sherlock Holmes and Devdas to spin the story, and he uses their characters’ signatures to build this story as well. The usual mix of the characters from the two stories are all here, be it C.L., or Paro or Mrs. Hudson. Manav adds local characters too, but that seemed quite less and the overall focus is too much on the two central characters.

Overall, an interesting story that explores a wonderful idea. The book scores a 3.94/5 for me.

I was provided a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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