News — Book Reviews

"Dan Andriacco’s new novel brings Sebastian McCabe, Jeff Cody and Lynda Teal from Erin, Ohio to London. McCabe has been challenged to a debate, Holmes vs Dupin; Jeff and Lynda are on their honeymoon, but they’re inevitably drawn in when a distinguished Holmesian collector disappears. His name is James Phillimore, and he vanishes in just the way that his fictional namesake did, stepping back into his house to retrieve his umbrella. Perhaps for the first time, Sebastian McCabe finds himself up against a truly deadly enemy, one who sees himself as a real-life Moriarty. The book actually gives us two...

"There is a lot of interest in Sherlock Holmes currently, with the BBC’s television series Sherlock and the American CBS series Elementary drawing a new generation of television viewers into the classic characters of Holmes and Dr. Watson. I have seen a few episodes of both shows and while as entertaining as most any contemporary crime drama, both are set in the current-day and their characters, for those of us who have read the canonical Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective stories, do little but carry on the names of the Conan Doyle heroes—especially in the American series where so many aspects of the original premise...

American scientist Frederic Golden wrote the famous article on Einstein for Time Magazine’s ‘Man of the Century’ edition, at the end of 1999. Who better then to review the new Sherlock Holmes novel that covers the controversial subject of his daughter. “Thank you so much for sharing your latest Sherlock caper with me. A wonderful, page-flipping read. You’ve caught the Conan Doyle ambience and cadences beautifully. How did you ever manage to have Holmes and Watson riding in a tarantass -  a priceless touch? At times, I was sure I was back again in the old master of Baker Street’s...

"The Story and the Scripts Behind No Place Like Holmes: Select Episode Scripts From The Hit Sherlock Holmes Web Drama Comedy by Ross K Foad. MX Publishing. 2012. 252pp. At www.nplh.co.uk/ you’ll find No Place Like Holmes, a series of comedy-dramas written and directed by Ross K Foad (who also plays Sherlock Holmes), based on the premise that Holmes and Watson were frozen in a time-spell by the demonic Hugo Baskerville, emerging eventually in the year 2010. We witness them, as the website says, fighting both evil masterminds and modern appliances. The films — thirteen so far, plus three Mary Morstan Mysteries, two reminiscences from the...

"Lynnette Porter is the editor of Sherlock Holmes for the 21st Century: Essays on New Adaptations. Here she surveys Cumberbatch’s career as an actor, touching on his extra-curricular life only to the extent that it influences his acting or is influenced by the transition from jobbing actor to star to celebrity. The facts are meticulously (but not tediously) referenced, and the writing is both literate and engaging. Sherlock is the turning-point, but it’s good to be reminded of the extent and importance of the actor’s career, before, during and after the breakthrough to stardom: acclaimed rôles in Rhinoceros and Hedda Gabler at the Royal Court, After the Dance at...