Customer Reviews

The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

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

 

 

I picked up this book expecting to find a book packed with intricate mysteries and excitement only to be disappointed by being presented with a series of stories that I can only describe as lame and totally uninteresting. Luckily, there are a few stories worthy of reading that rescues the book from being given a rating of 2 or less. I was surprised at the inconsistency found in the writing styles. There were only about 4 out of the 15 stories worthy of reading. All the rest would have put any poor soul to sleep by 2nd paragraph! Totally disappointing and not worth being published as a hardcover...way over priced!

As a long-time Holmes fan, I have read most of the stories written by a surprisingly vast number of authors. I have found, for the most part, that it doesn't make much difference in the quality of the story if the author is a "famous" author or relatively unknown. The writing may be good but the story is trash. As was the case here.

Why do authors have to incorporate famous people with Holmes? How many "ripper" stories have been written? Now we find Holmes on the Titanic -- and apparently the "mystery" was secondary to the description of the ship. We also are subjected to a story regarding Doyle's temptation into adultry -- since when has Holmes been a marriage counselor? And to have him and Watson race to get to the hotel "in time" to prevent it is not only stupid but hokey as well!

A few stories had merit but not enough to make the price of this over size paperback worth it.

I thought this book was going to be better than it was, especially after reading Marvin Kaye's other Holmes anthology, "The Resurrected Holmes". I was disappointed in the slim pickings in this volume. Only a few of the stories were actually good and worth reading. Some, like "A Ballad of the White Plague" and "Vittoria, the Circus Belle", are flat-out strange. It was quite a disappointment, especially for Holmes fans.

The third (and currently last) of editor Marvin Kaye's Sherlock Holmes collections (the previous two being 'The Game's Afoot' and 'The Resurrected Holmes'), this volume continues the good quality of the previous two.

In general, I found the majority of the fifteen stories in this book to be worth a read. The only real failure, in my view, was 'The Little Problem of the Grosvenor Street Furniture Van', but I readily accept that this is due to my personal tastes. The story is notionally written by Arthur Stanley Jefferson (better known by the name he acted under, Stan Laurel) and is a slapstick comedy story. I've never been a fan of slapstick, and even if I had some fondness for it I'd rather see it in its best medium, something visual.

Having said that, the other 14 stories were all fine with me. I'll take the opportunity to specifically mention 'The Affair of the Counterfeit Countess' by Craig Shaw Gardner, which proves that you can tell a successful Holmes story and still be funny, and 'The Secret Marriage of Sherlock Holmes' by Shariann Lewitt, which lives up to its title (!). Both these step outside what one might expect in a Sherlock Holmes story and pull it off well.

Very well written in my opinion. What caught my eye in the list of short stories was the title "The Secret Marrige of Sherlock Holmes" which turned out to be a good story even if it was lacking in romance. I think fans will enjoy the new additions to Conan Doyle's legacy.

This Sherlock Holmes short story collection consists of fourteen tales written by different authors. Every story is well written and brings out Holmes personality as if Doyle wrote the book. The usual players, such as Watson, are in attendance. However, the most intriguing notion about this anthology is Holmes' brilliantly described relationships with noted figures of the late nineteenth century such as Ida Tarbell, Arthur Conan Doyle (don't get schizoid), James McNeil Whistler, and P. G. Wodehouse, etc.

Though this has been done numerous times before, the technique remains fresh in the hands of the assorted authors. This is an anthology that does justice to the master, making it worth reading by all detective fans.

Harriet Klausner

As one who truly loves the original, I found most of the stories in this far-fetched and far more dark. More dark and strange than most pastiches, even. It was like someone taking Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to a rave party or something -- it was 20th century writing with 19th century (okay early 20th century too) characters. I just didn't care for it.

from PUBLISHERS WEEKLY issue of December 15.THE CONFIDENTIAL CASEBOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES Edited by Marvin Kaye. St. Martin's, $23.95 (356p) ISBN 0-312-18071-3 Of uniformly high quality, these new cases of Sherlock Holmes are further enhanced by the diverse backgrounds of the contributors. From writers of mystery (Ed Hoch, H. Paul Jeffers) to editors (Patrick LoBrutto) to teachers (P. C. Hodgell, Pat Mullen), the majority of them have been collected by Kaye before in Sherlockian anthologies (The Game is Afoot; The Resurrected Holmes). Eleven of the 15 authors have backgrounds in speculative fiction, and they make good use of delectable flavorings of mood and atmosphere to spice up a tired formula. In "The Adventure of the Boulevard Assassin," an intense and energeticstory by Ida Tarbell biographer Kathleen Brady, Holmes, Watson and Tarbell act to prevent anarchist bombings in Paris. The clever "Adventure of the Noble Husband" by Peter Cannon, who once teamed Holmes with H. P. Lovecraft, brings Holmes face to face with Arthur Conan Doyle is a very satisfying exploration of the complicated relationship Doyle had with his future second wife, Jean Leckie. For complexity of ideas, gut-wrenching imagery and powerful emotional impact, Jay Sheckley's "The Case of Vittoria, the Circus Belle" is the best of an excellent collection. (Feb.)

While the stream of stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have flowed unabated since the last "official" story by Arthur Conan Doyle, St. Martin's Press and Marvin Kay have embarked on a series of clever anthologies to fill in the gaps. "The Game is Afoot" brought together the best of the pastiches, both serious and satirical, written over the last half-century. "The Resurrected Holmes" imagined stories written by popular authors (Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft) and literary legends (Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac).

"The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" contains 15 new cases which, for various reasons, Dr. Watson would have consider unpublishable. The cases were suppressed because they would hurt innocent people, unfairly damage the reputation of one of Britain's leading politicians, or either embarrass Holmes or Watson, or reveal too many personal details about their lives before they met.

There's not a dud story in the bunch. These are not attempted imitations of Doyle's style, but competent retellings of cases.

But there are a few stories, written with a more literate hand, or a deeper appreciation of the characters, which shine out. The stories that delve into Holmes' childhood ("A Ballad of the White Plague" by P.C. Hodgell) and Watson's days as a medical student ("The Case of Vittoria the Circus Belle" by Jay Sheckley) can be called formulative stories. "Plague" is an atmospheric, haunting piece that delivers a few chills, while Sheckley's story of the circus rider contains a sexually explicit scene that may discomfort Holmesian fans.

Then there is "The Little Problem of the Grosvenor Square Furniture Van," a burlesque told from the viewpoint of Holmes' Scotland Yard nemisis, Inspector Lestrade. To say more would give the game away, except to hint that the tale is allegedly ghost-written by none other than Arthur Stanley Jefferson, a.k.a., Stan Laurel. "The Affair of the Counterfeit Countess" takes Holmes' talent as a master of disguise to its logical extreme, when his appearance as the title character nearly becomes all too successful.

Readers who are wedded solely to the stories in Conan Doyle's "canon" will not, of course, touch this book with a ten-foot meerschaum pipe. The rest of his fans will find these tales entertaining, even enlightening.