[taming]

Plug your Kobo-W in via USB and choose "manage library". You will want to look at your files in the .kobo directory under kepub to see if a book "landed" there at the time you did your sync. On a Windows machine, you look at the Kobo file system in "My Computer", where it will appear as a drive. If the book appears to be there (that is, there is a file in kepub with a date and time that matches when you purchased your book), then the book is there, but somehow managed to miss the hookup with the sqlite Db that is necessary for you to access the book itself. If this is the case, delete the file from kepub and start over.

If the book is there and you have deleted it, or never got there and you want to use sync, then go into your library on the desktop application, rt click on the book and delete it from the bookshelf. Then go back on the kobobooks website, sign in, and go to "purchased books" in your library. Put a check mark next to the book (The Sherlockians), and then click on "bookmark". Answer yes, when asked if you want to bookmark it on page one.

Now go back to the desktop application, and choose update library. A new download of the book will appear on the desktop application. Try a sync, as usual. If the book still does not go onto your reader, then you probably have a defective book. This does not mean that the book will not load as an ePUB file. If sync is the only way you want to get your books, contact Kobo and ask for a refund, but I would try to download the book as an ePUB and see if that worked first. You should remove the file (if it appears again) from kepub before you add through Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) or sideload using Calibre, which does not seem to care if there is already an entry in kepub.

BTW, I have gotten one book where it happened just like you described and this worked. I have also had one book that the publisher sent in the wrong file format that I had to mess around with in ways that no end user should ever have to do. Occasionally, bad books happen. Occasionally, bad stuff happens to good books as they are prepared for our reader.