News — Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle

"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...

“This is an anthology of tales involving Holmes with conventional Nineteenth Century supernatural occurrences.  The ‘Holmes Agency’ has always stood firmly behind the motto, “Ghosts need not apply,” but any number of questionable events pop up in this collection. The lead story, a novella called “The Skull of Kohada Koheiji,” presents Holmes and Watson with ghostly happenings at a Japanese exhibition village in Knightsbridge.  The appearance of a Japanese specter in the midst of London does not promote amicable relations between the Japanese Empire and that of Great Britain. In the next novella, “The Ratcliffe Oracle,” an oracle has arisen that...