News — Book Reviews

“As in Parts VII and VIII, subtitled Eliminate the Impossible, contributors were instructed to honour Holmes’s statement: “The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply” — and to present him with a challenge that appears to be supernatural. The results are forty-nine atmospheric tales of darkness and dread; we may sometimes wonder whether even Sherlock Holmes can dispel the darkness and expose the truth, but of course he can and does. The authors include Mark Mower, Kelvin I Jones, Jayantika Ganguly, Paul D Gilbert, S.F. Bennett and David Marcum. There are radio scripts by Bert Coules, M.J....

“Dr Vaughan says that she’s always written with young and “casual” readers in mind. Her new book should appeal to them; it certainly appeals to me. As a dedicated veteran reader, with a special interest in dramatic and comedic presentations of Holmes and Watson, I find Cut to: Baker Street a helpful reference source, alongside Alan Barnes’s Sherlock Holmes on Screen and others (including the invaluable IMDB). The text doesn’t include full credits, but it covers the essentials, and it’s complemented by Georgia Grace Weston’s witty drawings. Exceptionally useful is the inclusion of internet-only and computer game productions, though their...

“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...

“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...

“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...