Back in November, purely due to the coincidence of reading two novels featuring a character called Holmes in quick succession, I devoted Saturdays to a series of five posts on Sherlock Holmes pastiches and adjacent…ephemera. And it got me thinking: I would like to read more good Sherlock Holmes pastiches.
Continue readingPastiche
#1240: “Our investigation is foxed and bewildered because everybody is thinking of Christmas.” – Crimson Snow [ss] (2016) ed. Martin Edwards
Having looked at Silent Nights [ss] (2015), the first collection of Christmas-themed short stories in the British Library Crime Classic collection a fortnight ago, I move on to Crimson Snow [ss] (2016), the second such collection, edited once again by Martin Edwards.
Continue reading#1231: “These are booming times for crime.” – A Study in Crimson: Sherlock Holmes 1942 (2020) by Robert J. Harris
I’m not quite the target audience for a Sherlock Holmes pastiche taking its motivation not from Arthur Conan Doyle’s original canon but instead the 20th Century Fox films and subsequent radio serial starring Basil Rathbone — being as I’ve neither seen nor heard them — but the notion intrigued me enough to give A Study in Crimson (2020) by Robert J. Harris a go.
Continue reading#1225: “Our path may be a murky one, but our enemy has shown himself.” – Moriarty (2014) by Anthony Horowitz
Last Saturday I wrote about Holmes and Moriarty (2024) by Gareth Rubin, and that got me thinking about Anthony Horowitz’s second novel in the Sherlock Holmes universe, Moriarty (2014), which I first read ten years ago.
Continue reading#1222: “When the world is burning, you pass the pail to whoever will take it.” – Holmes and Moriarty (2024) by Gareth Rubin
I’m a fan of Sherlock Holmes, and I’m a fan of a good Sherlock Holmes pastiche, so when Holmes and Moriarty (2024) by Gareth Rubin floated across my radar as being endorsed by the Conan Doyle estate as, possibly, the new official Sherlock Holmes novel…colour me intrigued.
Continue reading#1193: “We are lacking data. Without data we cannot infer.” – Elementary: The Ghost Line (2015) by Adam Christopher
Another month, another Sherlock Holmes pastiche, this time from the very enjoyable US TV series Elementary (2012-19). My belated discovery of two novelisations in that universe was a source of immediate interest, and so The Ghost Line (2015) by Adam Christopher found its way onto my TBR.
Continue reading#1179: “Surely he was wise to be seeking out fresh stories?” – The New Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes [ss] (2014) by Martin Edwards
Years ago, as a younger and callower man, I swore that the only Sherlock Holmes stories I would read were those written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Then I became a John Dickson Carr fan, and it’s been a slippery slope ever since.
Continue reading#1172: “Sometimes you almost persuade me that you have reasoning powers.” – The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont [ss] (1906) by Robert Barr
I first encountered the work of Robert Barr in the superb Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime [ss] (2009), and when Countdown John offered to lend me The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont (1906) — one of the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones, no less — to continue my education, I leapt at the chance.
Continue reading#1104: “Surely there must be some rational explanation…” – The Improbable Casebook of Sherlock Holmes [ss] (2021) by Nick Cardillo
Seven cases from the extended adventures of Sherlock Holmes, as Sherlockian superfan Nick Cardillo indulges in adding to the reminiscences of Dr. John Watson.
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