News — Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle

“The second novel about Holmes and Irene Adler by Amy Thomas, The Detective, the Woman and the Winking Tree (MX; £9.99), uses the same narrative technique as the first,The Detective and the Woman: Miss Adler’s chapters are told in the first person, and Holmes’s in the third person. It works well, not least because the woman emerges as a strong, intelligent and entirely credible character, whom Holmes rightly comes to admire. The subject of this new joint investigation is the apparently impossible disappearance of a Mr James Phillimore – who, as we remember from Dr Watson’s guarded remark, ‘stepping back into his own house to...

„There is the possibility of a Fenian attack also in The Amateur Executioner: Enoch Hale Meets Sherlock Holmes, the first collaboration between Dan Andriacco and Kieran McMullen (MX; £7.99). 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. 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...

“It has been quite a while since we have seen a Sherlockian story for children, David Ruffle’s SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MISSING SNOWMAN fills the bill nicely; it’s a sentimental story with charming illustrations by Rikey Austin (London: MX Publishing, 2012; 32 pp.).  The publisher’s web-sites are at <www.mxpublishing.co.uk> and <www.mxpublishing.com>.” Sherlock Holmes and The Missing Snowman is available from all good bookshops including in the USA Barnes and Noble and Amazon , in the UK Amazon and Waterstones. For elsewhere Book Depository who offer free delivery worldwide. In ebook format it is in Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iPad.

“Benedict Cumberbatch In Transition – An Unauthorised Biography. A Review. Can a simple title say it all? In this particular case, it can and it is a joy. Benedict’s career is indeed in transition at the present moment in time (when I’m writing we are just a few days ahead of the Star Trek Into Darkness Premiere in London) and, in less than four years,he has metamorphosed from a very talented BBC actor to a sought-after international star. If you expect a mere unauthorised biography here, you will be disappointed. As already thoroughly explained by Sherlockology and by the author herself in...

Of the thousands of images of Benedict Cumberbatch author Lynnette Porter has chosen this one for her performance biography of the actor which comes out in June. A leading designer has been chosen for the cover which the publisher’s say will be “very special and a unique concept”.  Benedict Cumberbatch, In Transition has been described by the author’s agent Uwe as ‘a labour of love’ with a quite incredible attention to detail. Porter has published several very heavily researched books to date, and this one runs to 350 pages. Certainly one for the more serious Cumberbatch fans. Porter is a big fan...