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In these sixteen tales of intellectual derring-do, Sherlock Holmes is shown at the height of his powers: he co-operates with a young Winston Churchill in the famed siege of Sydney Street; helps defeat a plan for a German invasion outlined in the Zimmerman Telegram; establishes a link between two missing lighthouse keepers and the royal treasures of King John; contends with a supernatural curse placed upon an eccentric aristocrat; and discovers a lost epic poem of Lord Byron.
Everywhere in these finely wrought tales, encompassing the critically acclaimed The Execution of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and the King’s Evil, and Sherlock Holmes and the Ghosts of Bly, riddles and mystery hover in the air. But they are not beyond the grasp of the incomparable Sherlock Holmes.
donnfo
Posted March 29, 2013
Written in the voice of Dr Watson, this book is a good contiinuation of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
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Posted February 3, 2013
The Game is Afoot
This space is usually dedicated to a review of a single book or film.
This time the review will be of a person, namely Sherlock Holmes. Last year, Stanford University’s School of Continuing Studies offered participation to anyone who wanted it in the project “ Discovering Sherlock Holmes.” A selection of Arthur Conan Doyle’s early tales and novels of Sherlock Holmes were re-released in serial format over a period of twelve weeks just as they appeared in The Strand Magazine in the 1800s. The response across the country was tremendous. Some of the stories published were : A Scandal in Bohemia , The Speckled Band, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. This year the project is being repeated with a new selection of Sherlockian tales. Even though I have read and reread these stories throughout my life, I find myself anxiously waiting for each week’s installment.
As enjoyable as it is to reread the original Holmes stories, I find myself yearning for new tales of the great detective. Enter the pastiche writers, the copy cats. Adrian Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur’s son, and John Dickson Carr teamed up in 1952 to publish The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes . This was a collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures based on cases mentioned by Dr. Watson in the original stories. Adrian even used his father’s desk where the original stories were written.
In the 1970s, August Derleth , an American, created the characters of Solar Pons and his friend and faithful companion, Dr. Lyndon Parker, who lived at 7B Praed Street in London. Pons was called the “ Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street . “ Derleth wrote nine books featuring Pons including among them The Casebook of Solar Pons, The Reminiscences of Solar Pons, The Memoirs of Solar Pons and The Return of Solar Pons all of which mimic the Doyle titles.
Larry Millett, a columnist of the Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, has even published five books whereby Sherlock and Dr. Watson journey to America, specifically Minnesota, to solve some tough mysteries including Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders and Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery. Millett’s books have been published very recently coming out in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
While Sherlock Holmes is a creation of fiction, he has almost assumed a life of his own. Just last November, Atlantic Monthly Press published Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography by Nick Rennison. In reviewing the book, Mitch Cullin, author of A Slight Trick of the Mind, said “If Sherlock Holmes didn’t exist, he certainly does now.”
In closing, I would hope that what has been written above will inspire some to read the Sherlock Holmes stories and to thrill to Sherlock’s call to Watson: “Come
Watson! The game is afoot!”
Overview
In these sixteen tales of intellectual derring-do, Sherlock Holmes is shown at the height of his powers: he co-operates with a young Winston Churchill in the famed siege of Sydney Street; helps defeat a plan for a German invasion outlined in the Zimmerman Telegram; establishes a link between two missing lighthouse keepers and the royal treasures of King John; contends with a supernatural curse placed upon an eccentric aristocrat; and discovers a lost epic poem of Lord Byron.
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