The Final Solution
- 131
- Pages
- about 2.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Final Solution” is a quiet, reflective homage to Conan Doyle, set in 1944. An unnamed detective of eighty-nine, long retired and devoted to his bees, takes up the search for the missing parrot of a mute Jewish boy. Some readers find the mystery thin and are drawn instead to the portrait of the old man; others feel the story grow more tender as it goes. For those who prefer mood and loss to puzzle-solving.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Final Solution: A Story of Detection is a 2004 novella by Michael Chabon. It is a detective story that in many ways pays homage to the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and other writers of the genre. The story, set in 1944, revolves around an unnamed 89-year-old long-retired detective, now interested mostly in beekeeping, and his quest to find a missing parrot, the only friend of a mute Jewish boy. The title of the novella references Doyle's 1893 Sherlock Holmes story "The Final Problem" and the Final Solution, as well as The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a 1974 novel written in homage to Conan Doyle by Nicholas Meyer.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.8 across 64 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 30% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Crime & mystery average of 7.6. That is how 7.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 6.8 | 64 | 100% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Final Solution?
It has 131 pages — shorter than 100% of the ranked books in Crime & mystery.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Crime & mystery — and a score of 7.4, the closest to this book.
