The Resurrected Holmes [Paperback]

Marvin Kaye (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St. Martin's (1996)
• ASIN: B000OTE4DG
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Odd concept, but good stories, August 25, 2000

By 

"grrreg" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Resurrected Holmes: New Cases from the Notes of John H. Watson, M.D. (Paperback)

'Resurrected Holmes' is a somewhat convoluted idea well-executed. It is a collection of short Sherlock Holmes stories supposedly written by other well-known authors. In other words, the actual authors who wrote the stories had to write them in the style of the purported authors, who were supposedly endeavouring to write in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Watsonian voice.

Now, that may or may not take your fancy. What is needs to be said is that, by and large, the stories in this volume are of an excellent quality, so even if the literary conceit that is the book's starting point fails to please you, the stories themselves should.

For true Holmes completists, each story is one of the unchronicled stories referred to by Watson in his accounts of Holmes' investigations (with the exception of the final story, which reveals the truth behind 'The Adventure of the Second Stain').

In some cases (for example, 'The Adventure of the Boulevard Assassin' and 'The Madness of Colonel Warburton', ascribed to Jack Kerouac and Dashiell Hammett respectively) the voice of the putative author occassionally overwhelms the Holmesian nature and may be a substantial distraction for those reading this book purely as a Sherlock Holmes collection.

However, some of the stories are good enough to warrant the price of admission alone. I particularly enjoyed 'The Adventure of Ricoletti of the Club Foot (and his abominable wife)', notionally written by P.G. Wodehouse, in that it managed to be both a convincing Holes story while also being a comedy of manners that its putative author might well have appreciated.

Marvin Kaye knows his Sherlock Holmes, and this volume plainly displays his (and the contributing authors) deep-felt love and admiration for the Holmesian canon. Recommended.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Failed Experiment but Worth a Read, October 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Resurrected Holmes: New Cases from the Notes of John H. Watson, M.D. (Paperback)

The basic premise of this book is to have contemporary famous authors write stories in the styles of deceased famous authors ostensibly working from notes of Sherlock Holmes' cases left behind and never written up by Dr. John Watson. With me so far? Good. This book is obviously an experiment and as such it fails overall. Perhaps three of the stories are outstanding, so much so that they measure up to the best of the original canon. Most do not really reflect the styles of the putative authors but that is not always a flaw. The "Hemingway" tale, for instance, is far better written and much more entertaining than anything Papa ever wrote himself. Another flaw, significant to dedicated Sherlockians, is the glaring lack of familiarity with their subject shown by too many of the authors. One wonders if they have read many Sherlock Holmes adventures or at least watched teleplay versions. Two or three of the stories are absolutely excrement and never should have been included in this collection. Outstanding among the latter is the story by "Jack Kerouac." In his introduction, the editor admits that the tale has no relationship whatsoever to Watson's notes on a Holmes case. In attempting to read the first few pages, it becomes patently clear that the story lacks other important elements like a plot, characters, and a purpose for existing. The editor's reasons for including this piece are beyond even the powers of the Master to deduce. Although the premise of the collection is certainly original, it is ultimately unsuccessful and hopefully will not be repeated. Far better to have writers recreate stories in the voices of Watson and Holmes themselves rather than in the false voices of others.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Holmes takes some unusual twists, July 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Resurrected Holmes: New Cases from the Notes of John H. Watson, M.D. (Paperback)

This book is split into 3 sections: Believable, Long Shot, and Other Detectives. (I know I messed up on the section names but that's the closest I can get.) Most of the stories are just plain good. There are a few truly awful ones like the one by "Jack Kerouac" and the wine merchant one, but then there are some that make up for bombs (the cripple parade and the giant rat of Sumatra.) Not for the purist Sherlockian but really fun for the rest of us. I would've given it 5 stars but I'm saving that rating for the best Sherlock Holmes book I read. (Still looking.)