The cover of the first book
5-Minute Sherlock is a series of novels by Drew Hayes, currently consisting of The Case of the Damaged Detective (2020), “The Case of the Haunted Haunted House'' (2021), and “The Case Of The Felonious Faire” (2023).The series focuses on Sherman Holmes, who claims to be the great-great-nephew of Sherlock Holmes, even though people keep telling him that Holmes is a fictional character. He is accompanied by Joel Watson. In actuality, "Sherman Holmes" isn't his real name (his real name is classified). He is actually the sole survivor of a sinister organization's attempt to test a mind-accelerating serum on a group of hapless partygoers. His mind has been irreversibly warped, and he only retains a tenuous grasp on reality. However, he is able to go into 5-minute burst, when he turns into a genius and is able to solve almost any problem put before him and notice any tiny detail around him (afterwards he passes out for an hour). "Watson" is actually Agent 221, assigned to escort him to another government research facility, where scientists hope to figure out how to duplicate the "5-minute bursts". He is often annoyed by his charge but has to keep him out of trouble and to keep his mind occupied in order to keep it from burning out. All the while there are people on their tail, seeking to return the subject to the Mad Scientist who created the serum and wishes to dissect the brain of the survivor.
The series consists of the following tropes:
- Awesomeness by Analysis: When in his 5-minute window, Sherman is capable of some truly impressive feats thanks to his influx of information and the ability to process it all instantly. After their capture, Sherman allows himself to fully enter this mode and then easily disarms two guards and explains to Watson, who is recovering from the serum how he can use his own lingering effects to defeat the half a dozen guards about to burst into the room. Watson decided to trust Sherman and is able to see everything as clearly as Sherman, putting a bullet into each of guard's head in a matter of seconds without missing once.
- Booby Trap: The house in the second novel has been rigged with hundreds of these by its creator, in order to protect his greatest invention, a basic computer developed decades before Alan Turing did any of his work.
- Catchphrase: The phrase that triggers Sherman's enhancement window changes every time in the first novel, as he's still unsure what it should be. During the climax, when he activates it to the fullest, he figures out the phrase, "The case is afoot."
- Contrived Coincidence: It just so happens that the apartment building where Sherman and Watson's detective agency is set up at the end of the first novel has a tenant with the last name Moriarty. Sherman takes every opportunity to go upstairs and bang on his door while shouting that his nefarious deeds will be revealed to the world, invariably referring to him as "Nemesis." Meanwhile, Moriarty is a retired cop from a long line of cops, who resents his family name being borrowed by Arthur Conan Doyle for a villain. Apologizing for Sherman's behavior becomes a daily routine for Watson.
- Defective Detective: Sherman isn't really a detective, but he thinks that he is. Given his condition, most of the time he's useless and can even be harmful. Then again, there have been cases when he picked up on minute details of something even without engaging his 5-minute bursts, such as when he figurs out that a gas station manager is a slavedriver.
- Engineered Public Confession: In the second novel, after Sherlock realizes that the ones who set the fire were the two supposedly rivaling fruit vendors, he, Watson, and the staff of the building set up an elaborate trap for the vendors in order to get them to confess to the crimes, largely so that the insurance company pays out for the damage.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Sherman and Watson are working their way to this relationship.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Dr. Dunaway is forced by Sherman to ingest his own serum, meaning he will likely not survive the process. Slightly subverted in that Watson ends up putting the doctor out of his misery with a bullet, mostly to keep Sherman from becoming a killer.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Sherman is able to go into 5-minute bursts when his mind is incredibly sharp and focused. He's able to perform instant complex calculations and pick up on minute details of the world around him. The second time the ability is used, he instantly calculates the number of corn kernels in a huge glass container at a carnival and is able to save a group of people on a spinning attraction that has gone out of control by yanking on just the right wire. When in this mode, he is shocked that he invoked this ability merely to win some coupons.
- Mundane Utility: The first time Sherman uses his ability outside the lab is to find a place to poop. He uses the ability to pick the lock on the gas station manager's car to use it as a toilet.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After successfully managing to fight off or outsmart a number of attempts at kidnapping Sherman, Watson ends up being manipulated by a pair of enemy agents who know about his trust issues and suggest that Sherman has been the mastermind behind it all. This makes Watson hesitate long enough to be incapacitated.
- No Social Skills: Sherman can't help but casually insult people around him, calling them simpletons to their face. Watson has to fight off angry crowds several times.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Watson never wears anything but a suit. He may change a shirt or not wear a tie, but you'll never see him sporting jeans or shorts.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Ava's specialty. Watson is often startled by her appearance.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: The builder of the house thought in strange ways. Ironically, Sherman seems to be the only one who can grasp the reasoning behind everything he did.
- Super Serum: The Mad Scientist is working on a drug that will turn regular people into geniuses. So far, the drug has killed nearly every subject. Sherman is the only survivor, and his condition can hardly be called a success.
- The Watson: Subverted. Watson is actually a highly-trained government agent with years of experience in the field. The only reason he's been given this assignment is because he often calls audibles on missions, sometimes resulting in failure. This assignment is his last chance to restore his good graces, or else he'll be out on his ass with no pension or recommendation. He's forced to put up with Sherlock constantly belittling him and he slowly learns how to say the right things to get him focused. But by the end of the first book, Watson has learned his most important role as this trope: to "have some goddamn faith" in his Holmes.
