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 Abdul-Jabbar, is best known for his basketball career. He first played (and dominated) in high school, at New York City’s Power Memorial Academy, then at UCLA under legendary coach John Wooden, and finally as a six-time professional champion with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers.



There is a strong and devoted following to new Holmes pastiches. A recent reimagining was penned by Abdul-Jabbar centering on Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older, smarter brother. And has become a series of three.

I highly recommend the tales.

A chilling opening set in 1870 Trinidad teases readers to learn who—or what—is killing the island’s children, draining their blood, and leaving behind bizarre backward-facing footprints. The mystery eventually comes to the attention of a 23-year-old Mycroft Holmes, who is secretary to the British Secretary of State for War, and who ends up traveling to the Caribbean to solve the crimes, aided by his black friend Cyrus Douglas, who was raised in Trinidad.

Abdul-Jabbar felt that the original stories portrayed the British Empire in a particular light, and he wanted to provide a “perspective from the colonies.” Having his hero travel to a colony where the legacy of slavery was still strong afforded him a way to use a very different lens from Doyle’s. And the relatively little information Doyle shared about Mycroft gave Abdul-Jabbar a clean canvas to work on.
[Adapted from PW - Publisher’s Weekly]

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