As a prophet looking backwards, [Sherlock] Holmes dares to look to the origin of things, to where mysteries are born, a single fact with all its bearings, past and future fused, one. All mystery stories are ultimately about reading "the Book of Life." Says the hero of Voltaire's novel Zadig, "No one is happier than a philosopher who reads in this great book that God has placed before our eyes."
— Stephen Kendrick, Holy Clues