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To echo the chorus, this book is quite disappointing. I surfed through the book staying aloft solely on its intriguing premise-- Sherlock Holmes (unnamed as such but recognizable just the same) survived Reichenbach Falls to live into the 20th century as a reclusive beekeeper and becomes embroiled in an intrigue involving a parrot spouting cryptic numbers perhaps related to Nazi atrocities. It never delivers on the premise, falling prey to an overly ostentatious writing style that suffocates the reader--even one who is susceptible to writing that is not dumbed-down and a bit baroque. Chabon uses a similar style in the yarn he's currently serializing in the New York Times Book Review. In this adventure story, it works like a charm-- witty, erudite, quite appropriate to its subject. I wanted to like Final Solution, I really did. Yet, I only finished it because it was so short.

Adds very well to the mythology created in the first book and fleshes all the characters out further. The progression of Dexter's relationship with his girlfriend is especially brilliant.