News — Book Reviews

Philip K Jones (aka The Ill Dressed Vagabond) is one of the USA's most respected Holmes reviewers and maintains a huge database of Holmes pastiches and fiction. Here is his review of The Case of The Russian Chessboard; "This is a short novel set in the late 19th Century in London.  Holmes and Watson are drawn into an investigation of Russian revolutionaries plotting and recruiting among London’s Liberals.  It brings them into the world of plot and counterplot, agent and counteragent that set the standards for 20th Century Social Commentary.  The Emigrés and the Okhrana define the moves and relations...

" idiosyncratic and entertaining" It's not every day that you sign a major film director as a new author and to be brutally honest I found the experience exciting, humbling and a little intimidating all rolled into one. Gerry O'Hara is best described as a legend of the big screen having several dozen films under his belt but no stranger to TV either with episodes of iconic series like The Avengers under his belt too. A prolific screenwriter Gerry also wrote several books during his career, but never had the time to do anything with them - now that he is...

"An exciting and witty romp" Dan Andriacco's first book in June this year has been a big hit with Holmes fans around the world and the blog of the same name Baker Street Beat has thousands of visitors. His debut novel, No Police Like Holmes is a mystery featuring Holmes fans rather than the great detective himself. The first main review of the book comes from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London in the current edition of The District Messenger. "An exciting and witty romp – not about Holmes but about his fans. The world’s third-largest private collection of Sherlockiana...

Alistair Duncan has a very hard act to follow with his new book, An Entirely New Country. His last book, The Norwood Author won the 2011 Howlett Literary Award (Sherlock Holmes book of the year) and was widely recognised as one of the most important Conan Doyle books in recent times due to the new information Duncan uncovered during his meticulous research. The challenge is that Conan Doyle is one the most written about authors in history, with literally hundreds of biographies about the great man. To find genuinely new information means delving into local archives which was the secret...

[caption id="attachment_441" align="alignright" width="98" caption="Shadowfall"][/caption] It's a rare Sherlock Holmes novel that gets 4.5/5 stars from The Bookbag, but we already knew Shadowfall is a rare gem. The reviewer says that the sequel is going to be on his 'most wanted list' and he's not the first to say that; "You remember Sherlock Holmes, yes? Deerstalker, pipe, leetle grey cells… (Oh, sorry, that was Poirot, but same kind of deductive ability), naked winged-woman on, or at least floating above, the sofa in Baker Street… wait a minute? Seriously? Well, ‘seriously’ is probably not the word to be used to describe...