Paris, 1890. When Sherlock Holmes finds himself chasing an art dealer through the streets of Paris, heās certain heās smoked out one of the principals of a cunning forgery ring responsible for the theft of some of the Louvreās greatest masterpieces. But for once, Holmes is dead wrong.
He doesnāt know that the dealer, Theo Van Gogh, is rushing to the side of his brother, who lies dying of a gunshot wound in Auvers. He doesnāt know that the dealerās brother is a penniless misfit artist named Vincent, known to few and mourned by even fewer.
Officialdom pronounces the death a suicide, but a few minutes at the scene convinces Holmes it was murder. And heās bulldog-determined to discover why a penniless painter who harmed no one had to be killedāand who killed him. Who could profit from Vincentās death? How is the murder entwined with his own forgery investigation?
Holmes must retrace the last months of Vincentās life, testing his mettle against men like the brutal Paul Gauguin and the secretive Toulouse-Lautrec, all the while searching for the girl Olympia, whom Vincent named with his dying breath. She can provide the truth, but can anyone provide the proof? From the madhouse of St. Remy to the rooftops of Paris, Holmes hunts a killerāwhile the killer hunts him.