Book Review - Sherlock Holmes - A Yorkshireman in Baker Street
Posted by Steve Emecz on
David Marcum
Robert Stapleton first came to Sherlockian notice when he participated in the initial 3-volume set of “The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories” in 2015. From that time to the present, he has become one of the most reliably consistent visitors to Watson’s Tin Dispatch Box, pulling forth story after wonderful story, all relating adventures of the True Sherlock Holmes. Now, with this wonderful volume, ten of his MX stories, along with another from a Holmes anthology from Belanger Books, are brought together for the first time.
The title of the book has a wonderful double meaning. Friends of Mr. Sherlock Holmes know that he was born in Yorkshire in 1854. But Robert Stapleton is also from Yorkshire, and perhaps he is the Yorkshireman in Baker Street, and his experience is what gives him such a great understanding of Holmes, his methods, and what he stands for.
Mr. Stapleton continues to write short stories for anthologies, and each one is a treasure. Hopefully he has many more in store, and it won’t be long before his next book comes out. I’ll be the first in line!
Sherlock Holmes - A Yorkshireman in Baker Street is available on this site with a % going to our good causes.
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Sherlock Holmes is a Yorkshireman, born and brought up on the North York Moors, but he spent much of his life at 221B Baker Street in London. He is more than a character from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's imagination. For many thousands of followers, he still lives in their minds through films, television, stage and radio plays, and written stories. Ever since Holmes first appeared in print, people have used the stories, together with knowledge of the culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to speculate about his life. They wanted more than the 60 stories in the Canon. This speculation is known as The Game, and has included the writing of pastiches, tales which his friend Doctor Watson, and others, might have written, but never quite got around to publishing. Until now.
Born and brought up in Leeds, Robert Stapleton is now retired and lives with his wife in North Yorkshire. In early 2015, David Marcum invited him to send him a story he had written, to be included in a new book of Sherlock Holmes stories, to be published by Steve Emecz, in support of the Stepping Stones school project. Over the following few years, he has written further pastiches, including some published by Derrick and Brian Belanger. A selection from all of these publications has been included in this collection.
"Come, Watson, come!" cries Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Abbey Grange, "The game is afoot."