The request is asking for a suitable substitute for *evident*, where, rather than suggesting something is a fact that is obvious, it suggests something is a fact that not only is not obvious, but that it requires the powers of mind and observation that someone like Sherlock Holmes would possess.

The word that I found most fitting to these conditions is **[abstruse][1]** (Wordnet Dictionary):  

> difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge;

[Another definition][2] (Dictionary.com):

> hard to understand; recondite; esoteric:

**[Recondite][3]** (Dictionary.com) would be a very good alternative, with nearly identical meaning:

> dealing with very profound, difficult, or abstruse subject matter; beyond ordinary knowledge or understanding; esoteric; little known; obscure

I found [this entertaining article][4] (Vocbulary.com), which I think captures the meaning very well, and I’ll quote it fully:

> Abstruse things are difficult to understand because they are so deep and intellectually challenging. It might be hard to figure out how a toilet flushes but the technology that goes into making the Internet function is abstruse.

> The Latin roots of the word abstruse are about concealing or hiding something, which is a good way to remember the meaning of this word. It is useful when describing something that is overly confusing, or if someone is deliberately making a story or a situation more complicated than necessary. It sounds and looks like obtuse, but abstruse is almost its opposite. Obtuse is dull or lacking a sharpness of intellect. While Abstruse is president of the chess club, Obtuse is hanging out by the parking lot smoking cigarettes.

As far as Sherlock Holmes is concerned, I found the following quotes from some of the collected works by Arthur Conan Doyle:

From *The Sign of Four*
 
> “My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most **abstruse** cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.”

Here, from *The Naval Treaty*, is one that may have special meaning to some

> “Oh, the mystery!” he answered, coming back with a start to the realities of life. “Well, it would be absurd to deny that the case is a very **abstruse** and complicated one, but I can promise you that I will look into the matter and let you know any points which may strike me.”  

> “Do you see any clue?” 
 
> “You have furnished me with seven, but, of course, I must test them before I can pronounce upon their value.”  

> “You suspect some one?”  

> “I suspect myself.”  

> “What!”  

> “Of coming to conclusions too rapidly.”  


The character Dr. Gregory House, of the U.S. television program *House*, (hat tip to Mari-Lou A) has a Holmes-like pit-bull tenacity (with all the same scariness to some) for resolving deadly afflictions. He was described in [an article of the Los Angeles Times][5] (Patt Morrison, July 20, 2012) this way:

> His cause wasn’t the patient; it was solving the puzzle of what was killing the patient. Some of the **abstruse** ailments he diagnosed were probably a footnote on Page 1063 of a textbook in a real med-school class taught at 8 o’clock on a Monday morning, but no matter. Hypochondriacs of the world swooned.


  [1]: http://wordnet-online.freedicts.com/definition?word=abstruse
  [2]: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abstruse
  [3]: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/recondite
  [4]: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/abstruse
  [5]: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/20/news/la-ol-diagnosing-hugh-lauries-missing-emmy-20120720