News — Book Reviews

"When I was a young teenager, I was utterly besotted with Prince William. What can I say? While my friends were eagerly snapping up magazines featuring N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys, I bought a short and fairly abysmal unauthorised biography of the royal heir. I didn’t care; it was something. Thankfully, Benedict Cumberbatch fans of any age no longer have to face the indignity of wasting money on shoddy prose. Benedict Cumberbatch, In Transition is an exhaustively-annotated and impressively-detailed account of a young actor’s career. Some might ask if now is the time for such a book, releasing arguably nearer the...

"Back in March I was sceptical when I learned of a play that was about tour the north-west: “Somewhere between the fact and the fiction Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s greatest creation stole the soul of Jeremy Brett, the actor who would become the embodiment of the Baker Street Sleuth. The Curse of Sherlock Holmes follows Jeremy as he fights for his sanity… his life.” I don’t know how it came across in performance, but the published script by Dhanil Ali (MX Publishing, 2013) is thought provoking and dramatic, without being unnecessarily sensational. Since the protagonist is Jeremy Brett, however, the disclaimer: “All...

“Simon Corble’s two-act play “The Hound of the Baskervilles" was first per formed in and outdoor venue in Britain in 1995, and the script’s now available (London: MX Publishing); Corble’s introduction explains how the play came to be written, and why it differs from the book.  It can be interesting indeed to read scripts when you have already read the story." Hound of The Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Play is available from all good bookstores including in the USA Amazon and Barnes and Noble, in the UK Waterstones, Amazon and Book Depository (free worldwide delivery). In ebook format it is in Kindle, Nook and iPad.

"This is a slim, 80-page volume that culls the essence of the Great Detective’s teachings and sorts them into categories and quotes of a paragraph or less. It follows the same style as Bevelin’s previous book, “Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger,” a very popular how-to for investors, now in its third edition.   Bevelin has done for Holmes what he did for business moguls like Charles Munger and Warren Buffett in previous books. He demonstrates what students of the Holmes saga have always known: That the adventures of the fictional sleuth are not just entertaining tales, but a road map...

"The Amateur Executioner: Enoch Hale Meets Sherlock Holmes by Dan Andriacco and Kieran McMullen. MX Publishing. 2013. 180 pp. Enoch Hale, a native Bostonian, is a reporter for London’s Central News Syndicate (where, in 1920, Horace Harker is still a familiar figure, though far from revered) and a friend of Chief Inspector Wiggins of Scotland Yard. As it becomes evident that the apparent suicide of a Music Hall artiste was only the first of a series of murders by hanging, Hale’s determination to find the link between the victims is variously helped and hindered by a cast of remarkable characters that includes...