Since running across “Mycroft and Sherlock” earlier this year, I’ve been looking for “Mycroft Holmes,” the first book in the series by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse. 

And, yes, it is the same Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the basketball legend who apparently has a great understanding for the legend behind Sherlock Holmes.

But I digress.

Of course, I could have easily ordered “Mycroft Holmes,” but that doesn’t keep my consumer dollar in town, or invested in a local book store. Plus, it’s fun hunting for a book rather than just instantly having it by the press of a computer button.

But I digress again.

“Mycroft and Sherlock” was a fun Holmes story. 

Mycroft is Sherlock’s older brother. Here, the novel is set years before the famed stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Mycroft is in his late 20s and he is in charge of supervising his younger, teen-age brother, Sherlock. 

Abdul-Jabbar and Waterhouse develop a fun, prickly but caring relationship between the intellectual brothers. They also create a strong relationship between Mycroft and his friend, Douglas, a black business owner and philanthropist who must pretend he is neither so he can successfully make his way in mid-1800s London.

So, having enjoyed “Mycroft and Sherlock,” there have been the occasional visits to the mystery shelves for “Mycroft Holmes.” The last trip, still no first volume in the series, but instead a third volume: “Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage.”

Here, the brothers and friend are involved in two cases: An Asian man being held in China as a traitor for selling arms to Japan, the same man promised in marriage to a woman whom Mycroft met and fell for in the previous book; and a series of bizarre murders that has London on edge.

The two cases are intriguing but they are also the main problem with the book. 

With two cases, more than just the plot is split. So are Mycroft and Sherlock. The charm behind the second volume was the relationship between the brothers. Here, they are split in two different directions and are rarely in contact with one another. So, that charm is missing from “The Empty Birdcage.”

The last volume could have easily been called “Mycroft with Sherlock.” This one is more appropriately titled “Mycroft and Sherlock.” They’re both here but rarely on the same page literally. It was much more fun when they figuratively weren’t on the same page but literally were.