News — Book Reviews

"According to the author, this book “falls naturally into two parts: the Doctor as written about by Doyle, and an exploration of the concept of the foil before, during and after the first appearance of Watson.” She is, however, doing herself an injustice with this relatively bald statement. Part One covers every aspect of a character that you can imagine, the friends and acquaintances on which Doyle may have drawn – or not, and, if not, why not –for inspiration;  the places and actions and fallacies of same – in a historical context; Watson’s own background and possible ‘origins’, his...

"Ever since I jumped into the Sherlock Holmes scene with both feet a few years ago, I’ve been conscious of the issues of gender and feminism that underlie the current surging interest in the detective. One of the first things I learned, one that amazed me, was that the Baker Street Irregulars, respected international Holmes organization, did not admit women until the year 1991. I also learned that in past years, women who wanted to be active in the world of Sherlock Holmes fandom (for it is a fandom, make no mistake), did not always have the easiest time of...

"THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MR. JAMES PHILLIMORE, by Dan Andriacco (MX Publishing, 2013; 240 pp.) is the fourth book in his series about Jeff Cody (in London for the second half of a honeymoon) and Sebastian Mc-Cabe (in London to debate Holmes-vs-Poe); there are two Phillimores (one of them Canonical and one quite modern), more than two murders, and some interesting sleuthing. The author’s entertaining (and Sherlockian) blog is at <www.bakerstreetbeat.blogspot.com>.” The Disappearance of Mr James Phillimore is available from all good bookstores including Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, and for free shipping worldwide Book Depository . In ebook format it is in Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks(iPad/iPhone).

„In the canon, Conan Doyle’s stories give London a very tangible sense of place. As Holmes and Watson have their adventures, readers are provided details which make the geography of 1895 London come alive, providing a unique opportunity to engage in ‘the Great Game’. Available through MX Publishing, The London of Sherlock Holmes by Thomas Bruce Wheeler is a great resource, combining 21st century technology with the canon to provide a thorough piece of Sherlockian scholarship that you can sample via this online chapter. On a superficial level, The London of Sherlock Holmes is an extremely fascinating book, providing a...

Learning from Sherlock Holmes Jana Vembunarayanan / September 11, 2013 Recently I read the book A Few Lessons from Sherlock Holmes. If you want to improve your thinking then you should read this book. In this book the author has distilled Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes into bite-sized principles and key quotes. I really enjoyed the book as it reminds me of the teachings of Charlie Munger. This is not a coincidence as the author of this book, Peter Bevlin, is also the author of Seeking Wisdom from Darwin to Munger. In this post I am capturing the similarities of Holmes and teachings...