My Sherlock Holmes

Review 1: This book is an Anthology of pastiches 'told' by characters from the Canon other than John H. Watson, MD. There are thirteen tales, written by a number of familiar hands as well as newcomers to the world "where it is always 1895".

Richard Lupoff provides The Incident of the Impecunious Chevalier, written from the viewpoint of the Chevalier Auguste Dupin. This tale does not, necessarily, mesh with either of his earlier pastiches; The Adventure of the Boulevard Assassin or The Advaenture of the Second Anonymous Narrator. Kurland's tale, Years Ago and in a Different Place, fits well into his developing life of Professor James Moriarty. I'm looking forward to his next entry in the series, The Empress of India.

Michael Tremayne continues his picture of an Anglo-Irish Holmes with A Study in Orange, by Colonel Sebastian Moran. It fits well with his earlier tales; The Specter at Tullyfane Abbey, The Affray at the Kildare Street Club and even with The Siren of Sonnen Cove. All these tales emphsize Holmes' celtic heritage and understanding of the life of minorities in Victorian England.

Michael Mallory treats us to another, slightly skewed, vision of Holmes by the 2nd Mrs. Watson called The Riddle of the Young Protestor. Some of his earlier stories of the facinating Amelia Pettigrew Watson have been published as The Adventures of the Second Mrs. Watson and I hope more will be made available somewhere other than in old detective magazines. George Alec Effinger provides (alas, he died in 2002) his final pastiche, The Adventure of the Celestial Snows, another tale, like his The Musgrave Version, told by Reginald Musgrave. Apparently, his semi-Sherlockian Castle Falkenstein novel, The League of Dragons, will not see publication as it was promised some time ago but didn't appear.

There are also interesting first efforts at pastiches in the collection. Barber Hambly presents The Dollmaker of Marigold Walk, written by Mary Morstan Watson and Mel Gilden explains the Untold Tale of Mr. Phillimore's Umbrella in plausible fashion with The Adventure of the Forgotten Umbrella. Norman Screiber mixes Holmes and Professor Charles Dodson with some pathos in Call Me Wiggins, by the sometime leader of the 'Baker Street Division of the detective police force'. Gary Lovisi, a long-time publisher of delightful exotica, including a number of interesting Holmes pastiches by fantasy writers, has tried his hand at 'pasticherie' with Mycroft's Great Game.

Linda Robertson presented an unpublished interview by a reporter from English Fireside Magazine, titled Mrs. Hudson Reminisces, which clears up some questions left open by the Canon. Cara Black included a long letter from Irene Adler Norton to her daughter, Neige, in Cabaret aux Assassins, and C. D. Ewing, a writer of 'dubious and questionable memory', provided an article from a lost edition of Hogbine's Illustrated Monthly, titled As They Knew Him - Sherlock Holmes.

Taken as a whole, these are amusing tales, but almost all of them suffer from language difficulties. For example, 'to decimate', in modern usage, seems to mean to destroy or to obliterate, but to Victorians, it held its original, Roman meaning, to destroy one in ten. A 'prerequiste' meant a requirement to start, not a requirement to continue which was merely a requisite to Victorians. Further, a learned Victorian gentleman, when speaking as a professional, would not split infinitives and sound like a television news broadcaster. The dialog in most all of these tales suffers from 21st century usage and simply doesn't fit the (mostly) 19th century settings.

The Canonical compliance of the stories is also questionable, as many deny and contradict The Writings by Dr. Watson. On the other hand, the editor points out, quite properly, that various witnesses see the same scene quite differently and we are all the richer for the multiple insights that result from this fact.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, 2003

Review 2: While Dr. Watson narrated most of the original Holmes stories, pastiche writers have had difficulty in reproducing his style and effectiveness. By using another narrator, writers can avoid direct comparison to the original tales and can potentially provide new perspectives on the great detective.

My Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 new short stories by different authors told from the viewpoints of other characters that appeared in the original tales. These include Irene Adler, Mrs. Hudson, both the first and the second Mrs. Watson, Professor Moriarty, Colonel Sebastian Moran, and others. As with most such multi-author collections, the result is a mixed bag that ranges from very good to very bad.

The best of the bunch is by Michael Kurland, the book's editor. He has written several Professor Moriarty novels, and in this short story (Years Ago and in a Different Place) Moriarty tells how he came to know Holmes and how they investigated a strange murder at University.

Two other good stories feature Mrs. Watson. In The Riddle of the Young Protestor, Michael Mallory uses the second Mrs. Watson to narrate an interesting riddle/treasure hunt in the style of The Musgrave Ritual. The first Mrs. Watson appears in a well-crafted tale by Barbara Hambly that, while taking some Canonical liberties, appears to have been done with a good knowledge of the original tales.

Many of the stories emphasize action and adventure over detection. Unlike some pastiches (e.g., Carol Nelson Douglas's Irene Adler series), Holmes plays a central role in most of the stories. Watson is absent from several stories and plays a very secondary role in others since he is not the narrator.

Although the "different narrator" aspect of this collection is an interesting change, as a whole the collection is only comparable to other recent multi-author collections. One story is very good, several are good, and most are only average. One is poor and another is simply bad. Fans of Michael Kurland will certainly want to read his story in this collection, and I strongly recommend his other Moriarty novels, including:

• The Infernal Device
• Death by Gaslight
• The Great Game

Those interested in more traditional Sherlockian short stories should consider the Solar Pons stories by August Derleth and The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr.

Reviewed by: Randall Stock, 2003