Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes

An unlikely yet utterly engaging new take on Sherlock Holmes: as a spiritual guide and master of a Zen-like approach to observation who can provide insight for the modern, skeptical searcher.

Taking inspiration from Holmes's comment to Dr. Watson-- "You see but you do not observe"--Stephen Kendrick examines the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle for the religious and metaphysical lessons they offer. He maintains that detective fiction can be read as religious parable, and that the methods of investigation--particularly that of careful observation, what Buddhism calls "Bare Attention"--used in solving crime are the same methods that yield religious insight when applied to the world and the human heart. the lessons of detection--nothing is insignificant, notice what you see, the bizarre is not always mysterious, never presume anything--are also instructions in how to become attuned to the mystery of life and God.

Wide-ranging and eclectic in its approach, this is a perceptive and entertaining look at a cultural icon, at the most profound issues of life and death, and at what one has to teach us about the other.