Michael Chabon's The Final Solution (first published in the Paris Review in 2003) features an unnamed but strangely familiar detective, elderly and long-retired, investigating the case of a boy's missing African gray parrot. However, the boy is a mute Jewish refugee whose parents were taken away to a concentration camp, and the parrot keeps spouting mysterious numbers. Thanks to the numbers, the parrot attracts some unwelcome attention from more than one source—perhaps enough attention to lead to murder.
This book contains examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: Linus and the parrot are reunited, and the murderer is caught. But the other characters still don't understand the significance of the numbers—which refer to the railway cars in which Linus' parents were taken away to a concentration camp.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: At one point, Mr. Panicker becomes a suspect in the murder investigation because his wife was clearly attracted to the victim. Even Mr. Panicker admits to himself that his feelings on that score were violent.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: The detective puffs away on one.
- Double-Meaning Title: Both referencing the Holocaust, which was called the "Final Solution" by the Nazis, and mirroring Doyle's The Final Problem.
- Glory Days: The detective is naturally given to contrast his present circumstances, in which his body is slowly failing and his mind, while far from decrepit, is nevertheless not what it once was, with his abilities when he was working in his prime.
- Good Is Not Nice: The detective is cranky at the best of times, despite his emotional response to Linus.
- Grumpy Old Man: "Crotchety" would be an understatement for the detective's general demeanor.
- Inspector Lestrade: Inspector Bellows fills this role for the old man — as did his grandfather during some of the old man's investigations in his glory days.
- Mythology Gag:
- This isn't the first time in one of Chabon's works that a conspicuously out of place diary has covered up a conspiracy.
- The story also contains numerous allusions to the detective's prior adventures, some of which are recognisably from the Sherlock Holmes canon and others of which are original.
- No Name Given: The retired detective, although he is obviously Sherlock Holmes.
- Not in Front of the Parrot!: A rather dark example. Though the human characters do not realise it, it is heavily implied that the numbers the parrot keeps reciting are the numbers of train cars carrying people to Nazi death camps. Including Linus's parents.
- Swiss Bank Account: The murderer committed the crime and stole the parrot because he believes the numbers that the parrot keeps reciting are the account numbers for a Swiss bank account where Linus' parents have hidden their wealth from the Nazis. He's very wrong.
- The Unsolved Mystery: Sort of. The detective identifies the murderer and retrieves the parrot, but does not figure out what the numbers mean.
- The Voiceless: Linus Steinman. He gets better at the end.
- Xenofiction: Not a full example, but one important chapter is narrated from the perspective of Bruno the parrot.
