The unusual Sherlock Holmes

Review: This book is a collection of three tales that Mr. Riggs has been telling and re-telling to boy scouts for years. They are aimed at a sub-teen audience of boys and are further intended to stress the elements of ‘scouting’ as prescribed by the founder of scouting, Lord Baden-Powel of Boer War fame. There is no pretense that these stories are anything else, no claim to psychological insight or historical accuracy and associations. Just rousing adventure tales.

For Sherlockians, there are details to pick at, but the author has done his work and has tried to attend to the Canon. There are many details incorporated that are dear to the heart of Canonists and efforts to fit these stories into the framework of the Canonical facts are apparent throughout. On the other hand, these are adventure tales designed for youngsters, so ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ abound and women are either sweet and true or scheming and conniving and villains are always nasty.

The scientific content and historical accuracy are also kept at a 12-year old level, plauible but unable to stand more than casual scrutiny. The themes of the three stories fall into the same category, with stolen rifles for Afghan rebels, an Arthurian round table re-enactment and a clandestine moon voyager and would-be world conqueror as central subject matter.

If you have an adventure-minded sub-teen on your gift list, this book will be sure to please. It may also please older children who retain that spirit of adventure and delight in life’s mysteries and romances. Don’t buy it for curmudgeons or literalists, it won’t be accepted without that “willing suspension of disbelief” peculiar to the young at heart.

Reviewed by: Philip K. Jones, August 2007