Sherlock Book Review - The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 25-27

Sherlock Holmes Society of London

Pastiche is a funny thing. You know you’re not going to be satisfied that it’s a proper Holmes story when you open the cover, but they still have value. We’re never going to have the thrill of reading a real Holmes story for the first time again, but a well written pastiche can show you how other people see the Canon and, often, what they think was missing, through their own additions. And, in a way, seeing the Canon through these other eyes is perhaps the closest we’ll get to being able to read the Canon for the first time again.

The latest three volumes in this series continue David Marcum’s selection of traditional Sherlock Holmes short story pastiches by different authors. Sherlockian pastiches aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and quality in collections such as these is often somewhat variable. However, Marcum’s displays evident passion for this project and it is clear he has put a good deal of effort into the curation of his books. The stories collected here are all good and several are even better (one of my personal favourites was “Dial Square” by Martin Daley). While it is true that no one will ever perfectly match the tone of a truly Canonical tale, the writings here make a good go of it and the authors should certainly feel proud of their achievements. Acknowledgement must also go to Brian Belanger, whose cover designs tie this series together into some very smart looking tomes fit to ornament any Sherlockian book shelf.

You can see the whole MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories collection on this site.