Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years

Review 1: This book includes eleven stories about Holmes’s activities during “The Hidden Years”, the period from the end of The Final Problem until the beginning of The Adventure of the Empty House. During this time, from 1891 to 1894, Holmes was thought to be dead, having perished in the Reichenbach falls with Professor Moriarty. Sherlockians also refer to this time as “The Great Hiatus”.

Holmes gave a brief summary of his activities in these years, which Watson included in his account of The Empty House. The amount of ink devoted to proving, disproving, rebutting and explaining Watson’s report would serve quite handily to drown any number of the writers who have penned these comments, and quite deservedly so.

Apparently, Mr. Kurland requested clarifications of these accounts rather than alternatives. Most of the tales included here seem to substantiate the chronology of The Empty House, rather than refute it. The Beast of Guangming Peak, by Michael Mallory, recounts the memories of an officer who encountered “Mr. Sigerson” during his travels in Tibet. This is a rather nicely thought out mystery with a potential supernatural explanation that may also be mundane. In any case, it fits well into the Canonical framework.

Carolyn Wheat contributed Water from the Moon, a simple but neat murder mystery solved by an ailing Mr. Sigerson, who is compelled to run an errand for Mycroft. The contact in Siam is one Louis Leonowens, who may be familiar to readers from his mother’s account of her stay in Siam.

Peter Beagle has supplied a tale called Mr. Sigerson which recounts the early stages of our hero’s trip to the Orient. This delightful narrative is provided by one of the most entertaining characters never included in the Canon, the concertmaster of the Greater Bornitz Municipal Orchestra. This one invites re-reading.

Alaska is the setting for The Mystery of Dr. Thorvald Sigerson, by Linda Robertson. An innocent is saved from a false murder accusation and the guilty identified in a somewhat strained Canonical setting.

Rhys Bowen provides an interesting account of amnesia and murder in The Case of the Lugubrious Manservant. This one involves Dr. Freud and some Austro-Hungarian elite.

The Bughouse Caper, by Bill Pronzini is a somewhat tedious account of a case for Carpenter and Quincannon in San Francisco. It is a puzzle how one carries a dark lantern in one’s pocket and the author’s portrait of Holmes is very much a dilettante.

Michael Kurland included his own Reichenbach which fits well with his other accounts of Holmes and Moriarty. Aside from some minor, technical faults, it makes good reading. However, strict Sherlockians have never accepted his views on “The Napoleon of Crime.”

Carol Bugge performed up to her usual standards with The Strange Case of the Voodoo Priestess, an account of very real spells and Murder at Mardi Gras. She even provided an excellent explanation for the presence of The Master.

The Adventure of the Missing Detective, by Gary Lovisi, is an account of a Universe where Moriarty triumphed over Holmes. It provides a chilling picture of true evil.

Michael Collins gives us a view of the nature of social justice in America of the 1890’s in his “Cross of Gold”. Holmes’s involvement is not well explained and the picture is dark indeed. The title, from Bryan’s Free Silver speech, is freely interpreted.

God of the Naked Unicorn, by Richard Lupoff writing as “Ova Hamlet”, is a classic piece. It was originally published in Fantastic Magazine [08/1976] and reprinted in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Martin Greenberg.

This anthology is amusing and well worth adding to a pastiche collection by all but the most fanatical pastiche haters.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, 2005

Review 2: The eleven stories in this book all occur during the time Holmes was assumed to be dead after battling Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. This concept, like the one in Kurland's previous anthology of My Sherlock Holmes, allows most of the writers to use a different narrator and avoid direct comparison to the style of the original tales.

It also encourages them to tell stories that take place away from Victorian London. A number are set in the United States, including San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, and the territory of Alaska. Some readers will enjoy this diverse view of the world in the 1890s, while purists may miss the traditional settings for a Holmes tale.

Indeed, two of the tales are fantasy/science fiction. One of these, The Adventure of the Missing Detective by Gary Lovisi, provides a "mirror universe" type story similar to that of many Star Trek episodes. The other, God of the Naked Unicorn by Richard Lupoff, brings in other famous characters including Doc Savage. I read a lot of SF and enjoyed both of these as science fiction stories more than as Holmes tales.

Many of the stories emphasize action and adventure over detection and mystery. Bill Pronzini's The Bughouse Caper is the best "mystery" of the bunch. It does a nice job of creating the San Francisco setting and fleshing out the character of its narrator detective.

Peter Beagle offers another interesting tale called Mr. Sigerson. It is not a traditional Holmes story but it's difficult to classify. It's well-written, humorous and has entertaining characters - a pleasure to read.

Overall I found the story quality in this collection to be uniformly good. Kurland's previous anthology, My Sherlock Holmes, was uneven with a couple strong stories and couple weak ones. I enjoyed this collection more, and it was better than I had expected.

However, Kurland's publisher did him no favors with the book design. My copy looked more like a book club edition than a quality first-run volume. The margins were skimpy and it was somewhat awkward to hold and read. The physical part of a book shouldn't detract from enjoying the story, but in this case it did. Let's hope future works have a more generous construction.

Reviewed by: Randall Stock, June 2005