Customer Reviews

Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THIS IS SIMPLY A REPRINT OF THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES ADVENTURES WITH A DIFFERENT ISBN. VERY DISAPPOINTING AND MISLEADING. I RATED IT FOUR STARS ONLY BECAUSE IT IS A HARDBACK WHEREAS THE PREVIOUS EDITION WAS A LARGE TRADE PAPERBACK. THE STORIES ARE RATHER ENTERTAINING AND SOME ARE WELL WRITTEN.

I was almost crushed when I recieved my book. This is another example of marketing ploy. It is a rerelease of The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holms Mysteries under a new title and new ISBN number. As with my colleague, the stars are only for the hard cover, not for being gyped AGAIN with a rerelease with different title, ect. We want new stories, not rereleases of books already collected, however attractive you make them! Quoth the Raven...

First, I had no idea that this was the Mammoth Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories. Fortunately, I didn't own that either, when I purchased this. Yay me.

Second, the stories are not quite so transparent as the one star review suggests. The point of Sherlock Holmes stories is not the same as Agatha Christie mysteries. You aren't supposed to try to figure it out! That isn't the point! The point is to simply go along for the ride, like our dear Dr. Watson.

That said, many of the stories are passable, and a few of them are even quite interesting. There is the normal, apparently insurmountable, urge to make Sherlock meet and work with every possible famous person from the time period to which he is ascribed, which is annoying (at best). Again, that wasn't the point, either. The point was for Sherlock to go out and solve interesting mysteries. Some of these actually manage to do this, so I enjoyed it.

Finally, there is an annotated bibliography which is present that is quite useful, even if the comments about other works are snarky (which is common) or downright rude (which occurs). It certainly makes it easier to track down additional Holmesiana without resorting to Wikipedia or google.

Worth reading if you like Sherlock Holmes and are interested in seeing other authors handle the character. If you are a purist, avoid it like the plague. If you are not interested in Sherlock Holmes, why are you reading this review again?

So, generally worthwhile. B-

Harkius

I picked this up at a local bookstore on sale, and let me just say that there is a REASON it was on sale! This book is awful! I am a huge Holmes fan, and this book was a MAJOR disappointment. The stories are all by different authors, and by and large are all transparent and poorly written. Most are so obvious that you can figure out the ending before the "victim" has even finished their tale, and those few that seem more complex ultimately prove to have conclusions that make little sense and serve as poor examples of Holmes-ian reasoning.

The stories are so badly written, too-- authors trying to copy Conan Doyle's style and doing a VERY poor job of it. They try to sound "too" Victorian and lose the plot and the reader's interest over-focusing on style. Some don't even do that much-- they read like bad teenage fan-fiction. Please, I beg you, if you are looking for some interesting new Sherlock Holmes stories, look elsewhere! Try "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" or "The Italian Secretary" instead!

"They don't make them anymore!" This is the sentiment that assaults one after completing a book like this. First published in 1997 as `The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures', this massive collection of pastiches cover the entire gamut of post-Doyle Sherlockiana. The contents of this book, along-with my thoughts regarding them, are as under: -

(*) Foreword by Richard Lancelyn Green
(*) Acknowledgements
(*) Introduction: The Life and Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Mike Ashley

Part I: Early Years
1. `The Bothersome Business of Dutch Nativity' by Derek Wilson: very good.
2. `The Affray at the Kildare Street Club' by Peter Tremayne: I am sick of Mr. Tremayne and his Irish-connection stories in every collection of pastiches, and sincerely hope that editors would stop printing his Irish stories just for a change.
Part II: The 1880-s
1. `The Case of the Incumbent Invalid' by Claire Griffen: very good.
2. `The Adventure of Vittoria the Circus Belle' by Edward D. Hoch: not upto the standards of Mr Hoch, I must state.
3. `The Darlington Substitution Scandal' by David Stuart Davies: very good.
4. `The Adventure of the Suspect Servant' by Barbara Roden: good, but Ms. Roden's subsequent efforts are vastly superior to this pastiche.
5. `The Adventure of the Amateur Mendicant Society' by John Betancourt: very good, and quite sensational.
6. `The Adventure of the Silver Buckle' by Denis O. Smith: Holmes in Scotland in a very good adventure; more of Mr Smith's works should now be available, with the advent of e-books in a big way.
7. `The Case of the Sporting Squire' by Guy N. Smith: good.
8. `The Vanishing of the Atkinsons' by Eric Brown: Holmes in Ceylon (present Sri Lanka), in another sensational case which is good to read.
9. `The Adventure of the Fallen Star' by Simon Clark: good.
Part III: The 1890-s
1. `The Adventure of the Dorset Street Lodger' by Michael Moorcock: good, enjoyable story.
2. `The Mystery of the Addleton Curse' by Barrie Roberts: very good.
3. `The Adventure of the Parisian Gentleman' by Robert Weinberg & Lois H. Gresh: a sensational case, but too pulpy to be true of Holmes.
4. `The Adventure of the Inertial Adjustor' by Stephen Baxter: a grave science-fiction oriented adventure that brings Holmes in close contact with H.G. Wells. Very good.
5. `The Adventure of the Touch of God' by Peter Crowther: a very good story of real-life psychological horror.
6. `The Adventure of the Persecuted Painter' by Basil Copper: even in a Sherlock Holmes adventure the master of gothic horror manages to unnerve us in a few paragraphs, despite the mystery being too simple to solve.
7. `The Adventure of the Suffering Ruler' by H.R.F. Keating: a rare failure of Holmes, chronicled rather truthfully.
8. `The Repulsive Story of the Red Leech' by David Langford: a very good mystery that makers clever usage of physics in its dénouement.
9. `The Adventure of the Grace Chalice' by Roger Johnson: good, straight-forward mystery.
10. `The Adventure of the Faithful Retainer; by Amy Myers: sensational, good-read.
Part IV: The Final Years
1. `The Case of the Suicidal Lawyer' by martin Edwards: a very good story.
2. `The Legacy of Rachel Howells' by Michael Doyle: a story that defeats itself in trying to be too clever.
3. `The Adventure of the Bulgarian Diplomat' by Zakaria Erzinclioglu: good, but too sensational and too political, something that Sir Arthur would have avoided like plague.
4. `The Enigma of the Warwickshire Vortex' by F.Gwynplaine MacIntyre: finally a solution to the problem of Mr James Phillimore who had vanished from the earth without leaving any trace, that too in New York.
5. `The Case of the Last Battle' by L.B. Greenwood: a simplistic feel-good kind of a story that tries to conclude the efforts begun in "His Last Bow".

(*) Appendix I: A Complete Chronology of Sherlock Holmes's cases
(*) Appendix II: The Tales of Sherlock Holmes
(*) The Contributors

Overall, a very good collection of pastiches that would appeal to all lovers of Sherlockiana. Recommended.