Publishers Weekly Reviews - The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories
Posted by Steve Emecz on
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories has reached thirty-nine volumes and just keeps breaking records - the most new stories (over 800), the most participating authors (over 200), etc - but its the quality of the reviews that is the most rewarding.
There are a staggering 23 positive reviews from Publishers Weekly - a record - here are links to them all (nineteen are starred reviews).
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"Mind-bending puzzles are the highlight of Marcum’s fully satisfying 34th anthology, which again demonstrates that multiple authors are capable of giving Sherlock Holmes and Watson innovative mysteries to tackle while staying in character. In Will Murray’s “The Mystery of the Spectral Shelter,” the sleuths’ cabdriver asks for help with a bizarre encounter: on visiting a shelter built to give drivers some respite he found a man who seemed frozen in place. When he tried to return on another day, there was no trace of the structure he previously visited. In Marcia Wilson’s “The Monster’s Mop and Pail,” Holmes finds a vital clue in what’s missing: the locked room containing a man murdered by an unknown method has a mop bucket filled with water, but no mop. In Arthur Hall’s “The Adventure of the False Confessions,” Holmes explores why men who could not have committed the crimes they admitted to confessed, using identical language. Marcum’s inventory of canonical pastiches shows no signs of being exhausted any time soon."
"Might one of the major tragic accidents of Victorian England actually have been a crime? Why has the owner of a small furniture van disappeared? Those are just two of the puzzles Sherlock Holmes tackles in yet another stellar anthology of 21 short pastiches that effectively mimic the originals. Terry Golledge (1920–1996), whose stories were unpublished during his lifetime, stands out with two entries, “The Grosvenor Square Furniture Van” and “The Case of the Woman at Margate,” both based on Dr. Watson’s references to unpublished investigations. The latter is an exemplar of cleverly building on the slimmest of narrative reeds—a single sentence about the absence of powder on a woman’s face. John Lawrence’s “The Princess Alice Tragedy” delves into a real-life 1878 collision on the Thames, which caused the sinking of a paddle steamboat. Hundreds of its mostly lower-class passengers, out for a day’s excursion, perished; a man whose wife and five daughters drowned asks a young Holmes to look into what happened. As the recent discovery of Golledge’s work shows, Marcum’s diligent searches for high-quality stories has again paid off for Sherlockians.
"A locked-room mystery without bloodshed and a seemingly motiveless serial killer tale highlight Marcum’s impressive 28th anthology, featuring 18 pastiches from early in Sherlock Holmes’s sleuthing career....All entries adhere to the spirit, language, and characterizations of Conan Doyle’s originals, evincing the deep pool of talent Marcum has access to. Against the odds, this series remains strong, hundreds of stories in."
"The gifted authors of the 19 pastiches in this superior MX Sherlock Holmes anthology eschew murder in favor of lesser but still baffling crimes such as blackmail and kidnapping. In one of the standouts, Marcum’s “The Sunderland Tragedies,” a desperate mother fears her young daughter has been abducted by the girl’s birth father; a horrific tragedy that claimed many children’s lives gives the tale the kind of emotional depth Conan Doyle’s emulators often lack....
"How can a piece of parsley supply a vital clue to a detective? The answer is supplied in one of the 21 short stories in MX’s excellent 24th anthology of tales emulating Conan Doyle’s originals, all inspired by Dr. Watson’s teasing mentions of investigations he never published. In Jayantika Ganguly’s “The Adventure of Parsley and Butter,” Holmes is consulted by a prominent attorney who has survived five attempts on his life, but is unable to forestall another attack... Marcum’s expertise at selecting high-quality pastiches remains impressive.
"Marcum’s outstanding 23rd anthology features 11 sets of paired stories that each interprets a cryptic canonical reference differently. The highlight is a superior integration of the fictional worlds of Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker, “The Adventure of the Tired Captain,” by Stoker’s great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker and Leverett Butts, in which Holmes is consulted by the father of one of the characters who didn’t survive the plot of Dracula, who’s desperate to know the fate of his child...Marcum’s well of talented authors able to mimic the feel of the canon seems bottomless.
"Marcum’s superlative 22nd Sherlock Holmes pastiche anthology features 21 short stories that successfully emulate the spirit of Conan Doyle’s originals while expanding on the canon’s tantalizing references to mysteries Dr. Watson never got around to chronicling...again demonstrating the creativity of the writers Marcum has recruited. This will whet the appetite of many Sherlockians."
"One of Conan Doyle’s most tragic creations, the eponymous “Veiled Lodger,” gets a believable and intriguing after-story in Mark Mower’s “The Unveiled Lodger”; Eugenia Ronder, the original veiled lodger, has rebuilt her life, but is troubled by a coded message she found on her property. In a clever twist, Michael Mallory makes Watson’s decision to reveal in print the location of his sensitive cache of untold tales essential to the plot of “The Adventure of the Doctor’s Hand.” This is another must-have for Sherlockians."
"Other authors offer intriguing takes on some of Watson’s tantalizing references in the canon to untold tales, including a baffling vanishing of a man who went missing after going to retrieve his umbrella and a gory death linked to a bizarre worm. Marcum’s reserve of high-quality new Holmes exploits seems endless."
"Matthew White demonstrates how a gripping and moving mystery not centered on violence can be crafted in “A Case of Paternity.” Other tales examine Watson’s relationship to religion, his opinion of the British Empire, and his experiences during the Afghan War. Marcum continues to burnish his reputation as a superior selector of quality new Holmes stories."
"The 16 pastiches in Marcum’s splendid 18th Sherlock Holmes anthology prove that creative authors can recapture the essence of Conan Doyle’s characters with an impossible crime or seemingly supernatural angle without relying on vampires or werewolves."
"This is yet another impressive array of new but traditional Holmes stories."
"The 16 stories in Marcum’s excellent 16th pastiche anthology pit Sherlock Holmes against ghosts, werewolves, and various other monsters, offering clever, rational solutions to seemingly paranormal mysteries".
"This series shows no sign of flagging, welcome news for the many eager for more Holmes."
“More than 300 pastiches later, this MX series shows no sign of running out of steam”
“Amazingly, Marcum has found 22 superb pastiches, almost all from unknown authors. This is more catnip for fans of stories faithful to Conan Doyle’s originals.
“Marcum continues to amaze with the number of high-quality pastiches that he has selected”
“This is an essential volume for Sherlock Holmes fans”
"Marcum continues to find new Sherlock Holmes adventures of consistently high quality”
“Sherlockians will rejoice that more volumes are on the way”
“The imagination of the contributors in coming up with variations on the volume’s theme is matched by their ingenious resolutions”
“Sherlockians eager for faithful-to-the-canon plots and characters will be delighted”
“This is a must-have for all Sherlockians”