Customer Reviews

The Forgotten Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Based on the Original Radio Plays by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green

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This book is not bad at all, and entirely true to the OTR shows, some of which I have on cassette tape. The one star ding is for the fact that the show did not really come up to the "Canon" in my humble opinion. Dr. Watson was portrayed too often as a bungling idiot, which he was not, of course. Otherwise the plots are great, the stories exciting, and quite well-written as well. Quoth the Raven...

Given the record of H. Paul Jeffers, 75 books listed on Amazon alone, and the brilliance of Anthony Boucher and Denis Green I expected this to be a mind blowing reading experience. Though I am a fan of Sherlock Holmes fiction, I bought this on the basis of the name of Anthony Boucher. The best part of the book was the introductory and foreward background given to the old radio shows covering the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This is where many of us my age were first introduced to the great detective. The book covers thirteen stories written by Boucher who planned the plot lines and another excellent writer, Denis Green who wrote the dialogue. Jeffers turns the scripts into short stories that average 20 pages each. He does not do as good a job that other writers have in turning scripts into short stories or novels. I measure this kind of writing by the standards set by James Blish who turned the classic Star Trek scripts into brilliant short stories. Jeffers fleshes some of the scripts out just right, but for the most part he spends too much time with Watson nattering on about past cases, sometimes repeating cases needlessly. I can't recall if Watson did this on the radio, but it is not necessary in such a short series of stories. The forward and introduction make this a worthwhile buy for those who loved the radio show and are Sherlock Holmes fans. The rest of the book may be a let down to some long time fans. It is a shame that Jeffers didn't use less scripts and really flesh them out to novelette size.