They're not really books (don't know if they are based on novels). They are a Mandarin TV show. 3 seasons. Each season has two story arcs which span roughly half a season each so six stories have been told in total. The inspector/detective Di Ren Jie is a real person from Chinese history with very embellished stories told on the TV show

The reason it reminded me of Sherlock Holmes is because on the show, the inspector/detective, goes out of his way to talk you through crime scenes that he has stumbled upon in a completely logical/detached way which is not the norm for its genre (usually you get a big lecture on duty & loyalty to king & country (Communist propaganda maybe?) but not the case here. Here he talks you through his reasoning & his deductions first AND THEN he alludes to the importance of duty & loyalty to king & country, lol).

Basically the point I was trying to make is that, although the source for the character was nothing like Holmes, the way they chose to write the story/tell it on camera does look like it has been influenced a fair bit by Holmes. Inspector/detective Di even publishes a manual on the show for fellow inspector/detectives on correct crime detection/evidence interpretation methods (Sherlock does the same in the books & on the show).

Jokes aside, it is a very good series if you can speak Chinese (don't know if there is a version that comes with English subtitles).

Excellent, thank you so much!