“‘I’m hyperosmic,’ said Holmes. ‘Blessing and a curse […] Unnaturally acute sense of smell […] A genetic fluke.’”

Holmes’s explanation of his acute sense of smell, which is a recurring motif in the book, establishes his character in relationship to other characters, the reader, and his literary antecedent, Sherlock Holmes. In citing both the official name and the explanation for his condition, Holmes establishes himself as someone with esoteric knowledge that neither other characters nor the reader are assumed to have. While Holmes deploys his knowledge in mockery of other characters, the reader is positioned as being in on the joke and therefore not subject to the same light ridicule. The idea of a “curse” foreshadows Holmes’s drug use, which connects him to Sherlock Holmes, whose intellectual boredom resulted in cocaine use.

“‘When you have eliminated the impossible,’ said Holmes, ‘whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’

Boolin’s eyes narrowed. ‘That sounds like gobbledygook,’ he said. ‘But sure.’”

Boolin’s reaction to Holmes quoting one of the most famous lines from the Sherlock Holmes stories highlights how the text uses literary reference as characterization. While the Arthur Conan Doyle stories exist in the world of Holmes, Marple & Poe, not all the characters in the novels recognize those references. Those who fail to recognize the allusions, the novel suggests, lack important detecting skills made available by literary study. Here, Boolin’s ignorance offers an early glimpse of the detectives’