Inside the Mind of Sherlock Holmes - Seeing Thought as Story

Cyril Lieron & Benoît Dahan

Sherlock Holmes has been told and retold in so many forms.

And yet, he always holds up for me.

I love the character. The precision. The quiet thrill of deduction.

When we were in Belgrade, we had promised each other that we would not buy any graphic novels.

Okay… we were allowed to buy one. (Books are heavy to carry home. And we already have so many.)

But when I stepped into the Belgrade Book Fair and saw this book - I immediately picked it up.

We promptly bought book one and book two.

In Serbian.

A language I don’t speak.

I just had to have them.

(Now you can get it in English.)

The story begins with a disruption.

A doctor is found wandering the streets, injured, disoriented, with no memory of what has happened to him.

A body is discovered. The situation deepens.

What unfolds is a case that moves beyond a simple mystery, reaching into memory, history, and the long consequences of empire.

It feels grounded in the world of Holmes.

Precise. Observant. Unsettling in quiet ways.

What if you could see the way Sherlock Holmes thinks?

What stands out here is not just the mystery, but the way thought itself is shaped on the page.

A red thread moves through the book, connecting clues as they emerge.

Holmes’s mind is given form rooms, compartments, mechanisms - each holding and processing information as he works.

It could easily become overwhelming.

But it doesn’t.

The layouts are carefully controlled. Panels expand and contract. Information is layered, but always placed with intention.

You are guided, but never pushed.

At times, the book even asks something of the reader.

To look closer. To align images. To follow connections.

You don’t just read the investigation.

You take part in it.

This book stayed with me.

Not just for how it looks, but for how it moves through thought.

There is a lot being held at once.

Clues, memory, structure, history.

And yet, it never feels heavy.

Clarity here isn’t about reducing what’s there.

It’s about giving each piece its place and letting the reader move through it.

Books like this remind me what the graphic novel form can carry.

Mystery, history, psychology, all held together without strain.

And still, it feels immediate.

Still, it feels alive on the page.

Inside the Mind of Sherlock Holmes does this beautifully.

As we continue developing our own graphic novel work, it’s grounding to see how much the form can hold...

and how carefully it can be shaped.

— Annellie