Murder, My Dear Watson: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes [Hardcover]

Martin Harry Greenberg (Author), Jon Lellenberg (Author), Daniel Stashower (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2002

Eccentric, coldly rational, brilliant, doughty, exacting, lazy—in full bohemian color the world’s most famous literary detective and his loyal companion Dr. John Watson investigate a series of previously unrecorded cases in this new collection of original tales. In the Scottish Highlands and Afghanistan, in the cases of a dying doctor and a mooning sentry, of a black basalt bird and white chalk horse, popular contemporary mystery writers—among them Sharyn McCrumb, Carolyn Wheat, Anne Perry and Malachi Saxon, Jon L. Breen, Bill Crider, Colin Bruce—craftily celebrate the mind, methods, and manners of the peerless Sherlock Holmes. In addition, with one foot in the Victorian age and the other in the computer age, Christopher Redmond illuminates the vast possibilities that new technology offers Sherlockians in “Sherlock Holmes on the Internet,” while in “A Sherlockian Library” editors Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower provide a new list of fifty essential titles on Arthur Conan Doyle and the Holmes canon. Finally, an essay by mystery novelist Philip A. Shreffler explores one of English literature’s most famous friendships in “Holmes and Watson, the Head and the Heart.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like its predecessor from the same editors, Murder in Baker Street (2001), this solid anthology offers some choice Sherlockian plums. The ubiquitous Watson often takes center stage in these 10 tales: Colin Bruce's "Adventure of the Dying Doctor" pits the good doctor and Mycroft Holmes against an improbable insurance and stock fraud scheme entailing an errant comet, while Holmes watches benignly from the sidelines. Bill Crider's "Adventure of the Young British Soldier" features a grudge-driven villain intent on poisoning Watson's former orderly, a hero from their service together in the Afghan War. Sharyn McCrumb's eerie, supernatural "The Vale of the White Horse" appeals mostly to those interested in sorcery and demonic spirits, not usually the province of Holmes and Watson. Other stories bring the legendary detective into contact with Queen Victoria, whose would-be assassins are foiled in the nick of time, and film genius D.W. Griffith, who is threatened by German spies seeking to prevent him from helping the allied war effort. Sherlock's own stage portrayer, William Gillette, solves a jewel theft case in a style worthy of his celebrated mentor in the book's highlight, Daniel Stashower's "Adventure of the Agitated Actress." Holmes devotees will welcome the three essays that conclude the volume, but others may wish the editors had supplied an additional tale or two instead.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1st Carroll & Graf Ed edition (September 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786710810
• ISBN-13: 978-0786710812
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,503,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Slim pickings again, November 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Murder, My Dear Watson: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

I went ahead and invested in this follow-up to last year's "Murder in Baker Street", hoping that the stories would be better. Well, they weren't. The tales are just flat and unexciting. What happened to the good stories some of these authors used to contribute to previous anthologies? Out of this batch, maybe two are worth reading. Other than that, I would recommend saving $$ and renting it from the library.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing tales, March 23, 2007

By 

RIJU GANGULY "perceptive reader" (India) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder, My Dear Watson: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes (Paperback)

"Murder, My Dear Watson" is one of the annual anthologies published by Carrol & Graf in their `New Tales of Sherlock Holmes' series. Most of these anthologies contain a few attractive stories with mediocre to bad stuff being presented generously. Fortunately, this particular collection scores significant points in terms of stories that involve Holmes' (albeit apocryphal) singular tales with certain `matters of interest'. Now for a very brief description of these tales:
1. "The Adventure of the Dying Doctor" by Colin Bruce is a very humane story where Watson (surprise!) is the main character, with a cameo by James Moriarty and Mycroft Holmes.
2. "The Adventure of the Young British Soldier" by Bill Crider is another story where Watson and his erstwhile orderly Murray take centre-stage. Of course Holmes is there, sharp as ever, poetic as well.
3. "The Vale of the White Horse" by Sharyn McCrumb is a complex tale with hints of bizarre hereditary traits and the consequences. It was a brilliant story with depths that are rarely aimed at.
4. "The Adventure of the Mooning Sentry" by Jon L. Breen is a mediocre story about one of Holmes' post-retirement `missions'.
5. "The Adventure of the Rara Avis" by Carolyn Wheat is a rather sensationalistic attempt to develop the tantalizing hints left by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle regarding the affair of the Addleton-Barrow' into a story about the Maltese Falcon.
6. "The Adventure of the Agitated Actress" by Daniel Stashower is a brilliant story about white might have happened on the stage before William Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes" opened in London.
7. "The Case of the Highland Hoax" by Anne Perry and Malachi Saxon is an improbable, wild and poor story set in the Scottish Highlands.
8. ""The Case of the Golden Monkeys" by Loren D. Estleman is an almost Wold-Newton story involving Sax Rohmer and his Fu-Manchu model.
9. "The Adventure of the Curious Canary" by Barry Day is a good retelling of "The Speckled Band".
10. "Before the Adventures" by Lenore Carroll is a brilliant story about what could have happened to Watson before the entry of Holmes in his life.
The non-fiction writings included in this book contain a plethora of information about the world of Sherlock Holmes and how a Sherlockian may enrich his knowledge in these matters. Overall, highly recommended.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Plums, November 24, 2004

By 

Roger Knights - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder, My Dear Watson: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

Within the past three months I've read a dozen collections of Holmes pastiches, and found this to be the best. It includes several quotable "plums." Such plums were one of the key features of the original Holmes stories; they'd be a raisinless rice pudding without them. Here are a few:

P. 13: The best way to tell a lie effectively is to tell the truth badly.

P. 18: The moral, Watson, is that while life contains its hazards, it is the man who does not know how to calculate the risks who is in real danger.

P. 67: An amateur. Which means he is either a genius or a dilettante. There is no in-between in such cases.

P. 69: Swamp gas can only explain so much, sir, so much and no more.

P. 154-55: I saw the small twitch of irony catch the corner of his mouth. The next moment the face had regained its classically sculpted lines, something poised between Roman senator and an American Indian.

P. 161: He acted as though he expected to have the fatted calf killed daily on his behalf.