Snake Bite
In Snake Bite, the fifth book in Andrew Lane's Young Sherlock Holmes series, a teenage Sherlock is kidnapped by the Paradol Chamber and shipped aboard the Gloria Scott toward China. On the voyage he befriends the ship's cook, Wu Chung, who teaches him to cook and practice tai chi — skills that prove vital when pirates attack the ship.
Ashore in Shanghai, Sherlock is drawn into a mystery: how can three men be bitten by the same species of poisonous snake in different parts of the city, and who wants them dead? Working with Cameron Mackenzie and Wu Fung-Yi, he follows a trail that leads through a hidden cipher to a plot against an American warship. Set decades before the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, the series imagines Holmes's teenage apprenticeship in deduction and danger.
A teenage Sherlock, kidnapped and shipped toward China, forced to survive by wit and instinct.
A companion who helps Sherlock investigate the Shanghai deaths.
A companion who helps Sherlock investigate the Shanghai deaths.
Snake Bite is the fifth book in Andrew Lane's Young Sherlock Holmes series. The mysteries are self-contained, but the ongoing cast and Sherlock's development are easier to follow if you've read the earlier books in order, starting with Death Cloud.
Yes, in concept — the series imagines a teenage Sherlock Holmes decades before the events of Conan Doyle's original stories, developing the skills and instincts that later define the detective, though the plots and supporting cast are Andrew Lane's own invention.
The narrative relies heavily on the character development and established history from the preceding four installments, making it difficult to follow the protagonist's motivations without reading the series in order.