Book Review - Sherlock Holmes Short Stories from a Master Sherlockian
Posted by Rahul Singh Parihar on
Full review on Amazon USA
"Daniel D. Victor has brought us some really great Sherlock Holmes stories in his ongoing series, “Sherlock Holmes and the American Literati”. These books feature encounters between Holmes, Watson, and famous American writers, including “The Final Page of Baker Street” (Raymond Chandler), “The Baron of Brede Place” (Stephen Crane), “Seventeen Minutes to Baker Street” (Samuel Clemens), “The Outrage at the Diogenes Club” (Jack London), and “Sherlock Holmes and the London Particular” (Richard Harding Davis). He also kept up the literary ties with his first Holmes novel, “The Seventh Bullet”, and his excellent “Sherlock Holmes and the Shadows of St. Petersburg”. But he’s also written a number of notable Holmes short stories, many for the ongoing anthology series “The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories”, and sometimes these have encounters with American writers too.
“The Literary Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, a two-volume set, collects Victor’s 11 (so far) excellent short stories. His first, “The Adventure of the Aspen Papers”, relates an encounter between Holmes and Henry James, and is much better rendered than Dan Simmons fat novel that tried to do the same thing, “The Fifth Heart”. In “The Adventure of the Star-Crossed Lovers”, Holmes and Watson learn what has happened to the participants of the Canonical “The Yellow Face”, while “The Adventure of the Second William Wilson”, gives some of the true events related to one of Edgar Allan Poe’s narratives.
The other stories are just as excellent, from “For Want of a Sword”, telling an adventure that Holmes had during “The Great Hiatus”, to “The Adventure of the Amateur Emigrant”, detailing his encounter with Robert Louis Stevenson during the time he spent as an actor touring the United States, a year or so before meeting Watson and moving to Baker Street.
These, and the other six adventures as well, are all excellent examples of Victor’s skill and mastery. Seek out this book and enjoy these visits to Holmes and Watson and 221b Baker Street. And hope – like I do – that Victor will continue to produce more Holmes adventures, both novels and short stories, for a long long time."
David Marcum (Author and world's leading Sherlockian editor)