Shadows Over Baker Street (Hardcover)

~ (Editor), John Pelan (Editor) "It is the immensity, I believe..." (more)
Key Phrases: Lady Fairclough, Sherlock Holmes, Baker Street (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arthur Conan Doyle and H.P. Lovecraft were masters of mood and suggestion, qualities in short supply in this anthology collecting 18 all-original tales in which Sherlock Holmes and other Doylean characters confront various Lovecraftian horrors. A few contributions amount to cinematic action-adventure stories better suited to Indiana Jones, while perhaps the most atmospheric entry, Caitlin R. Kiernan's "The Drowned Geologist," with its sly Dracula allusions, relates more closely to her novel Threshold than to the book's theme. The more successful tales tend to adhere to traditional Holmesian scenarios, such as those by the two editors: Pelan's "The Mystery of the Worm" puts a neat Lovecraftian twist on one of Dr. Watson's untold cases, while Reaves's "The Adventure of the Arab's Manuscript" makes imaginative use of an unexpurgated copy of the Necronomicon found in an Afghan cave. Just as good are Richard A. Lupoff's "The Adventure of the Voorish Sign" and Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson's "The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone." F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre's "The Adventure of Exham Priory" takes the humor prize for an egotistical quip from the master detective, who alludes to the cosmic conclave of human and alien minds in HPL's "The Shadow Out of Time": "I was offered a chance to commune with intellects nearly the equal of my own."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Here's a real treat for fans of Sherlock Holmes, H. P. Lovecraft, and everyone in between: 20 original stories by writers of horror and fantasy. Neil Gaiman is here, along with Barbara Hambly, Richard Lupoff, Brian Stableford, Poppy Z. Brite, and many more. The premise is engaging: What if the world of Holmes, the world's most logical and rational detective, intersected with the world of Lovecraft, where logic and rationality have little meaning? These are stories about strange beasts, men cursed to death, and the walking un-dead. Most feature a powerful narrative voice. One stars Irene Adler and takes place nearly a decade before the events recounted in the classic Conan Doyle story, "A Scandal in Bohemia." Another is narrated by H. G. Wells. Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother, appears in one tale; still another has Dr. Watson becoming Holmes' client. The stories, set between 1881 and 1915, are uniformly excellent, and the book, authorized by the Doyle estate, is a welcome addition to the Holmes canon. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; 1 edition (September 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345455282
• ISBN-13: 978-0345455284
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #791,473 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Three stars does not mean unreadable. That's what 1 is for., December 29, 2003

By	socrates17 "socrates17" (New Jersey/Tanelorn 2008/9) - See all my reviews

I can half heartedly reccomend this with serious caveats.

Problem one. It is really a one-trick pony. OK. You get it. Holmes vs. various mythos creatures. This looks great on paper but does not sustain a book. If you are really interested, however, and since many of the stories are entertaining and a couple actually thought provoking, then buy it and read no more than one story a month, maybe every 6 weeks. This isn't only because of the limitations of the idea, but also because all but two authors chose (generally successfully) to mimic Doyle's/"Watson's" writing style.

Problem two. A disproportionate number of stories are based on The Shadow over Innsmouth. One that isn't, "The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone," is, as has been pointed out by a previous review, based on The Shadow out of Time. This is one of the two best stories in the book. A few stories seem headed off down that sidetrack created by August Derleth where there was a chance in fighting back and winning with Help from Outside. In HPL doom was eventually inevitable and there was no Help available.

"Death Did Not Become Him" is very tenuously mythos being more related to the story of the Golem and Cabbalistic mysticism with a pretty lane excuse given for the connection.

Most of The Uspeakable Old Ones are named in various chants and so forth, but few put in an appearance. In the original HPL the power of suggestion hightened the suspense. Here it is merely disappointing. Shub-Niggurath has a cameo and I think (based on precious little evidence) that Nyarlathotep has some off-stage schtick. Most disappointing, Chthlhu Himself is totally AWOL, replaced by innumerable aquatic hybrids.

"The Case of the Antiquaritan's Niece," is vaguely related to "The Dunwich Horror."

The best story is by Neil Gaiman. More or less connected to At the Mountains of Madness, it also reminded me of the wonderful Kim Newman's Anno Dracula books.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hypergeometry? Why, it's elementary!, November 12, 2005

By	Alexander Scott (Birmingham, AL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! (Paperback)

Many fans of the literature of H.P. Lovecraft wonder what his fiction would have been like if set in another era. Ramsey Campbell is perhaps the best representative of the '60s and '70s while John Tynes and his crew admirably adapt the core of Cthulhu to the 1990's. But what about the 1890's? Well, there is already a game afoot in that period and it is the inestimable Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion and recorder Dr. John Watson. The 1890's of Sherlock Holmes brings to the table of the Lovecraftian corpus the very summit of the Enlightenment and Rationality to be broken on the jagged rocks of Madness and Otherworldliness. Before the humbling of the Great War, all the power and prestige of the West was to be found in London, as well as the darkness of poverty, suffering, and a bubbling social revolution, ripe to be exploited for the Mythos.

Some of the stories herein are mere supernatural detective tales. The Sherlock Holmes we know and love has never been beaten and can conquer even the eldritch and the horrific when armed with the Necronomicon. Here, the gnosticism of Abdul Al-Hazred is simply one more tool in the box of Holmes for fighting the forces of darkness. Rarer is the story where he must come to grips with something he can't explain, when his much vaunted intellect is vanquished by something too alien to be dealt with by mere humans. In a world of only rational numbers, the value of "pi" is insanity. I think only "The Horror of the many Faces" successfully pulls this off.

Not every one of these tales is about Sherlock Holmes. A few deal more or less exclusively with Dr. Watson, and one is even about Irene Adler. H.G. Wells makes a guest appearance, and "A Study in Emerald" has . . . well, the ending is too good to give any hints.

For anyone who enjoys both Lovecraft and Doyle, this is a great anthology. I think that the tone leans more towards the latter than the former, but it is better than much of the fiction published recently, and is perhaps as good as the anthology SHADOWS OVER INNSMOUTH edited by Stephen Jones.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovecraft scores over Holmes, August 4, 2004

By	R. Mitra "mystery writer" (Long Island, NY United States) - See all my reviews

A fantastic collection, thanks to editors Michael Reaves, and John Phelan.
A great idea and the writers take up the challenge with gusto. Two of the best, The Case of the Antiquarian's Niece by Barbara Hambly, and A Case of Royal Blood are genuine pastiches. The problem is, believing that Holmes would countenance the supernatural in the solution of the cases. Mr. Doyle would have been delighted, especially in his later years, when he became a so called believer in the existence of the hereafter, spirits etc.
The writers have carefully used Lovecraft's trade mark terms:'The Elders', 'The Necronomicon' and 'Cthulhu'. All enough to make the blood of his fans run faster.
Sherlock Holmes fans should also rejoice, in the Weeping Masks, there are details of Watson's wounds received in Afganistan,not in Conan Doyle's accounts. Most stories are expertly crafted and not a single dull one.
Very very enjoyable.