It is nearing the turn of the 22nd century, and government-mandated social networking has virtually eliminated privacy and made detective work nearly obsolete. Much to his dismay and shame, Sherlock Holmes never has any cases to solve. He distracts himself from his professional failings with bare-knuckle boxing at an underground fight club and vials of cocaine and morphine. John Watson spends his days in an operating theatre on an Army base in Afghanistan, doing his best to patch up the wounded and failing more often than he'd like. The dark, violent worlds in which both men choose to live complicate their romantic lives and cause them terrible suffering but set them on paths that are destined to cross.

BEFORE HOLMES MET WATSON is the prequel to the novel, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ADVENTURE OF THE PAPER JOURNAL, an action-packed adventure and love story set in an eerily dystopian near future.