The Ghost Line by Adam Christopher is the first novel to spinoff from the popular television series “Elementary” (starring Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson). By way of background, in this Sherlockian universe Holmes left London following a serious battle against addiction and now lives in Manhattan, where he acts as a consultant with the NYPD. Dr Watson was originally hired to be Holmes’ sober companion but, following many successful cases, she gave up that career to become a full time investigator/Sherlock-wrangler. The duo’s jump from screen to page begins with the murder of Liam Macnamara, a subway train driver who was shot to death inside his securely locked apartment. Aside from winding up as the star of his own locked room mystery, Macnamara had a secret stash of cash in his breadbin and an unlikely connection to the new Columbian exhibition opening at the American Museum of Natural History. Holmes and Watson’s search for the truth takes them on a deadly tour of the hidden tunnels under New York and sees them tangle with cranky curators, Columbian gangs, urban explorers and subway bureaucrats. The Ghost Line is a fun, fast-paced detective yarn featuring a decidedly 21st century Holmes and Watson. Although the locked room element was cleared up surprisingly quickly, the actual mystery behind Liam Macnamara’s death was satisfyingly complex. There were enough twists and turns to mirror the average subway journey and a good cast of villains, oddballs, enforcers, and red herrings. There’s perhaps more action involved in the case than Holmes’ deductive reasoning usually requires, but everything comes together well into a mystery that you can solve alongside Sherlock and Co. The book is clearly meant to appeal to fans of “Elementary” and Adam Christopher does a great job of capturing the characters of Holmes and Watson as they appear on TV. Holmes is every bit as annoyingly brilliant and brusque, while Joan Watson is an excellent companion and an exceptional investigator in her own right. Captain Gregson and Detective Bell are also on hand to represent the forces of law and order, and in keeping with their appearances in the TV series, they actually help rather than hinder Holmes’ investigation. The tone of The Ghost Line is just right; reading it really is like following an episode of “Elementary”. So, a great beginning to the proposed series of “Elementary” novels. It will satisfy fans of the series, intrigue fans of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, and appeal to those who love a good murder mystery.