Two unlikely flatmates.

One decade-old murder.

Can thinking like a fictional detective . . . solve a real crime?

Sherlock Holmes’s No. 1 fan attempts to solve a murder – and drags his reluctant flatmate with him, in the feel-good mystery of the summer.

Sycamore Bell is obsessed with the world’s greatest (fictional) detective, and loves his job: answering the letters that arrive addressed to his hero at his employer’s Baker Street address.

When a young girl writes from Texas begging Sherlock Holmes to save her father from death row, and Sycamore is convinced he can help. He knows all of his hero’s techniques, and now he has a chance to put them to the test.

But the case (inevitably) goes disastrously wrong, and his new flatmate, James Watson, faces a dilemma: is it really his job to rescue Sycamore, solve the murder and generally save the day?

On the streets of London, a new game is afoot . . .

Extraordinary Correspondence is the debut novel from Robert Hutton. Perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Anthony Horowitz and Robert Thorogood, and lovers of TV shows Ludwig and Detectorists.

'Totally joyous' – Ann Cleeves, bestselling author of The Killing Stones