News — book review

"A new ‘Sherlock Holmes’ novel has a lot to live up to. And frankly, I was not hopeful for this offering. As an avid Arthur Conan Doyle – and Holmes – fan, I was sceptical that anyone could match Conan Doyle’s intellect whilst matching his fast-paced and gripping style. I was wrong. Symonds story could be described as a gripping yarn, which captured the essence of both Holmes and Watson very well. The story in short; Holmes and his faithful sidekick were contacted by the mysterious and duplicitous Prince Regnant of Bulgaria, following the theft of an ancient and sacred manuscript. Holmes is tasked...

"The essays collected in Watson Is Not an Idiot: An Opinionated Tour of the Sherlock Holmes Canon by Eddy Webb (MX Publishing; www.mxpublishing.co.uk) were originally posted on Mr Webb’s blog at http://eddyfate.com. They are necessarily opinionated, as they must be; they’re also intelligent, incisive and well-written. The nearest equivalent to Watson Is Not an Idiot is probably Martin Dakin’s Sherlock Holmes Commentary, but Mr Webb takes the line throughout that the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes are fiction, written by Arthur Conan Doyle. His book can help us appreciate just what is good in the stories, what isn’t, and why they still appeal when so much contemporary work is forgotten. It...

"This is the fourth book in the author’s series featuring Jefferson Cody and Sebastian McCabe.  It also includes a short story as well as the title novel.  In fact, the short story precedes the novel in time of occurrence by a day or two, so they should be read in reverse order of inclusion. As I said, this is the fourth book in this series, so it includes a number of familiar characters, both in person and mentioned in passing.  Those who enjoyed the first three books will also enjoy this one.  In fact, I found it more of a...

"This is the second collection of novellas by Mr. Hogan.  The first collection had a basic Japanese theme and this collection carries a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta theme. The first story, “One Little Maid from School,” tells of a missing schoolgirl with overly protective male relatives who have financial hopes from her inheritance.  The tale goes into the details of how budding debutantes were trained and constrained.  It also gives details of the evasive measures used by those young ladies to exercise some control over their own lives. The second tale, “Murder at the Savoy,” introduces two murders during performances...

"This book was published posthumously from notes left by the author.  Two “chapters” were published during her lifetime in issues of “Canadian Holmes,” [Volume 14, Issues #2 & 4, Wi/1990 & Su/1991].  Chris Redmond is responsible for making the completion of this tale available from her notes. I have copies of the original publications as well as the more recent, Trade Paperback edition and I re-read the original ”Chapters” as part of this review.  Sherlockians must be warned.  This is a love story, written by a true “Romantic Soul.”  This is also a story that fits well into the Canon. ...