Shadows over Baker Street

by Michael Reaves, Michael Reaves (Editor)

Overview

The terrifyingly surreal universe of horror master H. P. Lovecraft bleeds into the logical world of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s champion of rational deduction, in these stories by twenty top horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writers.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous literary figures of all time. For more than a hundred years, his adventures have stood as imperishable monuments to the ability of human reason to penetrate every mystery, solve every puzzle, and punish every crime.

For nearly as long, the macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle’s peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself?

In this collection of all-new, all-original tales, twenty of today’s most cutting-edge writers provide their answers to that burning question.

“A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman: A gruesome murder exposes a plot against the Crown, a seditious conspiracy so cunningly wrought that only one man in all London could have planned it—and only one man can hope to stop it.

“A Case of Royal Blood” by Steven-Elliot Altman: Sherlock Holmes and H. G. Wells join forces to protect a princess stalked by a ghost—or perhaps something far worse than a ghost.

“Art in the Blood” by Brian Stableford: One man’s horrific affliction leads Sherlock Holmes to an ancient curse that threatens to awaken the crawling chaos slumbering in the blood of all humankind.

“The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone” by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson: A girl who has not eaten in more than three years teaches Holmes and Watson that sometimes the impossible cannot be eliminated.

“The Horror of the Many Faces” by Tim Lebbon: Dr. Watson witnesses a maniacal murder in London—and recognizes the villain as none other than his friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

With fourteen other dark tales of madness, horror, and deduction, a new and terrible game is afoot:

“Tiger! Tiger!” by Elizabeth Bear
“The Case of the Wavy Black Dagger” by Steve Perry
“The Weeping Masks” by James Lowder
“The Adventure of the Antiquarian’s Niece” by Barbara Hambly
“The Mystery of the Worm” by John Pelan
“The Mystery of the Hanged Man’s Puzzle” by Paul Finch
“The Adventure of the Arab’s Manuscript” by Michael Reaves
“The Drowned Geologist” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
“A Case of Insomnia” by John P. Vourlis
“The Adventure of the Voorish Sign” by Richard A. Lupoff
“The Adventure of Exham Priory” by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
“Death Did Not Become Him” by David Niall Wilson and Patricia Lee Macomber
“Nightmare in Wax” by Simon Clark

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780345469861
Publisher:	Random House Worlds
Publication date:	09/30/2003
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Michael Reaves is a renowned screenwriter who has written, edited, and/or produced more than three hundred teleplays for various television series, including Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Twilight Zone, Sliders, and Monsters. He was also a story editor and writer on Batman: The Animated Series, for which he won an Emmy Award for writing in 1993. He has worked for Spielberg’s DreamWorks, among other studios, and is the author of several fantasy novels and supernatural thrillers, including Hell on Earth and the New York Times bestselling Star Wars novel, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. Reaves lives in Los Angeles.

John Pelan is an acclaimed author whose fiction includes the Lovecraftian novella The Colour out of Darkness. He is the editor of such groundbreaking anthologies as Darkside: Horror for the Next Millennium, The Devil Is Not Mocked, and The Last Continent: New Tales of Zothique. His solo stories have appeared in publications such as The Urbanite, Gothic.net, Enigmatic Tales, and Carpe Noctem. He is the founder of the publishing house Darkside Press, and cofounder of Midnight House. He lives in Seattle.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

The deerstalker hat, the pipe, the tobacco-filled slipper on the mantel . . . the image conjured, whether of Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Irons, or the reader’s own conception, is unmistakable. The most recognizable figure in English-language fiction is, without a doubt, that of Sherlock Holmes. For more than a hundred years the stories of the Great Detective using the razor-sharp blade of ratiocination against evil have captivated an enthusiastic readership throughout the world.

Numerous studies and related works, from biographies to encyclopedias that scrupulously list each minor character and setting, have been written over the decades. There have been films, radio dramas, plays, comic books, TV series, and even a couple of cookbooks. The number of unauthorized pastiches runs well into the hundreds. Holmes is one of the most fascinating characters in literature; the concept of a man solving the most difficult and challenging of puzzles by pure logic and deductive ability still strikes a chord with both writers and readers over a century after the character first appeared in The Strand Magazine. We can always count on Watson’s chronicles of the world’s first consulting detective to end with the comforting knowledge that all can be explained; there is no darkness too deep to be illuminated by the light of intellect and reason.

But what if . . .

What if Holmes and Watson were to be confronted by things outside the realm of human experience? What if the inconceivable proved to be true? What if there were places, entities, concepts in the cosmos that man not only did not, but could not, understand?

The “Cthulhu Mythos” cycle of H. P. Lovecraft is only a shade behind that of the Holmes canon in the number of adaptations and works that it has influenced. Ever since Lovecraft postulated the existence of Arkham, the Necronomicon, and the Great Old Ones in the pages of Weird Tales, scores of other writers have been inspired to compose their own visions of his outré mythology. The Mythos implies that the reality we know is narrow and constricted—that lurking just beyond the boundaries of sanity are beings of vast power and malice that ruled this world before mankind, and that intend to do so again. What strange events were caused by these powerful alien entities in the twilight days of the nineteenth century? How might the Great Detective fare as humanity’s defender against beings of incalculable knowledge and might?

We asked eighteen of today’s best mystery, fantasy, and science-fiction writers these questions. The answers are to be found in this book, which is the first such authorized by the Doyle Estate in many years. You may see slight differences in each author’s perception of the characters. This is to be expected; we all, (as the Great Detective himself would attest) observe things a bit differently. We trust that ardent Holmesians will find no discrepancies in the chronology presented here. Are these tales all to be considered part of the official canon or merely loving tributes from modern scriveners? That’s for you, the reader, to decide.

From the Far East to New York City to Holmes’s own London, a new and terrifying game is afoot. Sherlock Holmes and his allies have had lengthy experience in confronting the mysterious and the unusual; now they must confront the unknowable and the unspeakable . . .

Here, then, is the world prophesied by the mad Arab Abdul al-Hazred as seen through the eyes of Dr. John H. Watson, Irene Adler, Professor James Moriarty, and others. From Watson’s earliest adventures in Afghanistan to reminiscences written during the Great War after both men had retired, these stories are glimpses of a world where the impossible is real and terrifying.

Strange shadows lengthen over Baker Street, and in R’lyeh dead Cthulhu is stirring . . .

John Pelan and Michael Reaves
Seattle and Los Angeles, 2002