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Review of Mrs Hudson’s Olympic Triumph

“As anyone who knows me can tell you, I’m a fanatic for the traditional and authentic and Canonical Sherlock Holmes. As a rule I avoid anything with parody, or that presents Holmes as anything but a hero. I simply ignore most of these Alternate Universe tales, while other I actively despise. (Hint: I’m referring to the BBC show “Sherlock”.) But there are a very few non-traditional versions that I acknowledge for being very well done, even if they aren’t about The True Sherlock Holmes. For instance, I truly enjoy watching and re-watching the film “Without a Clue” (1988) starring Michael...

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Review of The Unpleasantness at Parkerton Manor – A Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street Mystery Book 1

“I always had a rather unorthodox view of the third most featured character in the Sherlock Holmes Canon – Mrs. Hudson, landlady of the best known address in English literature: 221B Baker Street.  I imagined her as a younger, more involved and most knowledgeable and perceptive character. Barry S. Brown has taken Mrs. Hudson to a delightfully higher level in this series and casts her as the brains behind Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. The canny middle-aged Cockney widow of deceased police constable, Tobias Hudson, creates her own consulting detective agency and hires Holmes and his friend, Watson as...

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Book Review - Sherlockian Musings: Thoughts on the Sherlock Holmes Stories

Review from the Seattle Sherlockian's: This book is a must-have for Sherlockian society discussions of the Canon. "Wow, it’s been a really great year for Sherlockian books and publishing! Another fine offering is SHERLOCKIAN MUSINGS: THOUGHTS ON THE SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES by Sheldon Goldfarb. This terrific volume is a study guide for Sherlockian readers who want to take the Canon to a deeper level. Using Doubleday's ordering of the stories, Goldfarb approaches each Sherlockian tale by use of artfully composed mini-essays that explore details which might escape a mere casual reader. For example, in “The Six Napoleons” he considers Victorian...

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Another Winning Sherlockian Adventure from Tim Symonds – Review of Sherlock Holmes and The Case of The Bulgarian Codex

“Different editors of Dr. Watson’s manuscripts have different specialties. Denis O. Smith brings us incredible stories set in the 1880’s. Marcia Wilson brings an unsurpassed understanding about the world of the Scotland Yarders that has no equal. Tim Symonds offers a number of well-researched, compelling, and full-length Sherlock Holmes adventures and short stories specializing in Our Heroes’ activities in the early 20th century. In “The Bulgarian Codex”, set in 1900, Holmes and Watson become involved in the quest to recover an ancient document – the Codex in question – before the various empires and Kingdoms on every side of the...

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Review of Sherlock Holmes and The London Particular

“Daniel D. Victor has made a name for himself by bringing us some really great Sherlock Holmes stories in his ongoing series, “Sherlock Holmes and the American Literati”. These books feature encounters between Holmes 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), and “The Outrage at the Diogenes Club” (Jack London). Now, in “Sherlock Holmes and the London Particular”, he gives us Holmes’s fascinating encounter with Richard Harding Davis, a famed American reporter and novelist at the turn of the twentieth...

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The Hound of The Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Play Review

The Hound of The Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Play Review

“The Hound of Baskervilles doesn’t easily lend itself to the theatre, but dramatists seem unable to resist the challenge. I’ve not had the chance to see it performed, but Simon Corble’s play is pretty close to the top of my list of favourites. It was written to be performed out of doors, with the audience following the actors from place to place. Mr Corble boldly adapts the story rather than simply dramatising, and the result is clever, witty, exciting – and refreshingly intelligent. David Stuart Davies contributes an appreciative foreword, and the text is enhanced by a dozen photographs and...

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Review of Sherlock Holmes and The Sword of Osman

“It is rare that I pick up a Holmes pastiche and immediately fall in love with it – but it happened with this book. Symonds managed to catch the voice of early retirement Watson so perfectly and with so much love and whimsical sarcasm that it is a joy to read from beginning to end. The story itself is set in a time when European powers were slowly realizing that a war unlike any before was approaching. Holmes and Watson come together for an adventure set in 1906 to make sure that the Sword of Osman, an insignia of the...

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Review of The Bird and The Buddha - A Before Watson Novel - Book Two

”With eloquent, refined, and precise prose, this novel calls forth the ethos of the time and the nature of Sherlock’s mind. In A.S. Croyle’s The Bird and The Buddha, a young Sherlock Holmes stalks a serial killer with the aid of a lovely young doctor whose need to solve the mystery is almost as great as her passion for the romance-averse detective. In this, the second book in Croyle’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-inspired Before Watson series, questions arise that threaten to lead the sleuthing pair to some unsettling conclusions: is the killer someone whose goal is to end suffering, or...

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Eloquent, refined, and precise prose

Eloquent, refined, and precise prose

Review of The Bird and The Buddha - A Before Watson Novel - Book Two ”With eloquent, refined, and precise prose, this novel calls forth the ethos of the time and the nature of Sherlock’s mind. In A.S. Croyle’s The Bird and The Buddha, a young Sherlock Holmes stalks a serial killer with the aid of a lovely young doctor whose need to solve the mystery is almost as great as her passion for the romance-averse detective. In this, the second book in Croyle’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-inspired Before Watson series, questions arise that threaten to lead the sleuthing pair...

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book review, Book Reviews, sherlock holmes, Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle, Uncategorized -

Philip K. Jones reviews The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part IV: 2016 Annual

“This book is the fourth in a series of Sherlockian anthology volumes from MX Publications and the new title addition indicated that the publisher plan to continue this remarkable series.  All of the authors have donated their royalties for this publication to the support of Undershaw.  It includes twenty-two short stories and novellas as well as a poem. The poem is a “Toast to Mrs. Watson,” by Arlene Mantin Levy, written as a series of rhymed couplets.  “The Tale of the First Adventure” is a short story by Derrick Belanger that tells how Sherlock learned to restrict the details he...

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