Curious Incidents 2

Review: The Introduction, by Charles Prepolec, declares the editors' intention to provide the reader with the longed-for experience of reading new Sherlock Holmes stories that are 'fit to drink'. There will be "no sign of Holmes' newly discovered sex life, or of unlikely and repeated trips to America, nor will you find him shooting-up with cocaine in railway lavatories or facing off against the likes of Dracula, Jack the Ripper or Fu Manchu".

On the whole, the editors meet this promise. The tales herein are much more like the tales of the Canon than those presented in many recent collections. They are mostly straight forward Sherlock Holmes adventures with no axes to grind and no special hobby horses to be mounted.

The Puzzle of the Vanishing Laboratory, by Peter Calamai is a neat little mystery set during Holmes' retirement. The German agents seem a bit more competant than real, but the other elements of the story are firmly historical and quite beleivable. Mr. Calamai's earlier efforts at pastiches appeared in the Hounds' Collections, Volumes 2, 5 and 8 and were titled The Problem of Laurier's Legacy, The Case of the Missing Case and The Case of the Resident Alien, respectively. Since his pastiches are generic Holmes, these four tales don't really tie together apart from the Canon, itself.

Regina Stinson's Art in the Blood, Revealed is definitely NOT a tale that would have been recorded in the Canon. On the other hand, it is a very convincing picture of an incident in the friendship of Holmes and Watson that might well have occurred. It is her first effort at a pastiche and conveys the feel of the Canon along with a good appreciation of the characters of Holmes and Watson. Let us hope to see her treatment of a real mystery at some future date.

J. R. Campbell presents what I feel is a typical canonical tale in The Missing Coppertop. It seemed to me to be right out of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I felt it was a distinct improvement over his The First Mate's Jacket from Curious Incidents, the predecessor to this collection.

The Adventure of the Hanging Tyrant, by M. J. Elliot, is a somewhat muddled attempt at a sequel to The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. The detection didn't quite fit Holmes' style and the events seemed forced. The editor notes that Mr. Elliot's three previous pastiches have appeared in Sherlock Magazine but I have not yet been able to obtain copies of them.

Green and Red Trappings, by Valerie J Patterson, is another tale that would never have appeared in the Canon but that may well have occurred. It exposes a very real and human side of Dr. Watson that gives the reader a chance to realize how much a part of the canon he is. This is another first pastiche by an author who should continue the practice.

David N. Cisler gives us The Adventure of the Sussex Scalping which is somewhat oversold. The 'Scalping' in the title never occurred and the mystery in the story didn't really happen either. The tale hangs together like many in the Canon, but Doyle would have written it as a short story with a less dramatic title. This is not up to the author's Wishhounds of Candlemere.

Mrs. Farintosh and the Opal Tiara, by James R. Stefanie, is an interesting mystery with reasonable depictions of Holmes and Watson. It doesn't seem to me to fit the circumstances under which the mention occurred in the Canon, which I leave to the curious to find. Mr Stefanie contributed The Case of Vamberry the Wine Merchant to Curious Incidents and gave us the novel, The Charters Affair. I preferred both to the present effort.

Whatever the strengths or weaknesses of the individual stories, this collection is an improvement on the earlier anthology. It makes a good run at fulfilling the editor's promise and is well worth the price. In fact, the illustrations alone are a great improvement on the earlier volume. That is, there are more of them by Philip Cornell, who has the true touch. Cornell has been likened to "another Paget" by some, but I never really liked Paget's illustrations, feeling they were too dark. I do like Cornell's work, especially his Dr. Watson.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, August 2003