The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons

 

I've been a fan of Dan Simmons since way back, and "real-world author as novel character" is a thing he's done with some regularity--I can without struggling think of Clemens and Hemingway, and now James (not counting some of the others in James' social circle who also appear in this novel). Some of his other recentish themes are threaded in this book, but I suspect the greater interest for most people would be his take on Sherlock Holmes. The novel plays more like a modern-day thriller than anything explicitly supernatural (certain occurrences at the Columbian Exposition excepted) just set in 1893. Pretty much any writer in this novel (and Doyle is in this novel, if only because his most famous character is) gets roasted in this novel--including arguably Simmons. A good novel, I think, by someone who's been doing it for a long time.