Elementary skills to free your inner super sleuth

Mastermind: How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova. Canongate, €21.40. Reviewed by Jonathan O'Brien.

Benedict Cumberbatch in the BBC production Sherlock: Maria Konnikova's book on the detective's theories is thought-provoking and surprisingly readable. Photo: BBC

Mastermind: How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes

**By Maria Konnikova**

**Canongate, €21.40**

**Reviewed by Jonathan O'Brien**

.....

Like Batman and vampires, Sherlock Holmes is one of those cultural tropes that seem incapable of simply going away and being given a decent burial. Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous creation has been somewhat difficult to avoid in recent times - there have been two Hollywood films since 2009, both of them starring Robert Downey Jr ...