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A review by jasonfurman
The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon
4.0
This novella is a slight effort, not as good as any of the other Michael Chabon I've read, but on a less demanding scale one would still say it's excellent.
It takes place in 1944 and centers around an elderly amateur sleuth who is not named but clearly meant to be Sherlock Holmes. The crime the sleuth is focused on is the disappearance of a mute Jewish refugee boy's parrot, although there is also a murder. The twin mysteries have a reasonably obvious solution, which is not really the point of the book. Instead, lurking behind everything, is the horror of the Holocaust and the parrot's recital of strings of German numbers that everyone wants to get their hands on, from British codebreakers to would-be thieves of numbered bank accounts.
It takes place in 1944 and centers around an elderly amateur sleuth who is not named but clearly meant to be Sherlock Holmes. The crime the sleuth is focused on is the disappearance of a mute Jewish refugee boy's parrot, although there is also a murder. The twin mysteries have a reasonably obvious solution, which is not really the point of the book. Instead, lurking behind everything, is the horror of the Holocaust and the parrot's recital of strings of German numbers that everyone wants to get their hands on, from British codebreakers to would-be thieves of numbered bank accounts.