Customer Reviews

Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years

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

 

 

A nice assortment of stories based on Holmes' "missing years". I prefer this anothology to Michael Kurland's Moriarty novels since Holmes takes center stage in all but Richard Lupoff's story, which is from a previous anthology. Kurland's take on what really happened at Reichenbach is interesting, and explains several vague references in his novels. The first nine stories are quite good, taking Holmes all over the world. The only thing that keeps me from giving this a five stars is Michael Collins' tale - Doyle's Holmes never made political statements and authors shouldn't use him to promote their beliefs.

Michael Kurland must be the reincarnation of Dr. John Watson with his powerful exciting Sherlock Holmes chronicles with the Moriarty twist. This time around he edits a terrific anthology from a who's who including many contributors who have written Baker St. stories. This time Mr. Kurland has his thirty-five writers (including himself) concentrate on the lost years, 1891 - 1894 when Holmes was thought dead having fallen over the edge of Reichenbach Falls while fighting with Moriarty.

Each tale is terrific so that more than just the Baker Street Irregulars will appreciate this compilation. Surprisingly some of the stories have Holmes in a back seat as others take the lead or explain away what really occurred at the Falls. Mr. Kurland, whose Moriarty tales are some of the best around, insures top quality that will have fans of the great detective taking the plunge.

Harriet Klausner

I find that I just have a hard time enjoying Sherlock Holmes pastiches. There are a few collections out there in which I have enjoyed some of the stories and not others. This collection is mediocre at best and frankly just does not quite fit with or come anywhere close to living up to the original.

This collection of stories ostensibly covers the years between Sherlock Holmes' presumed death at Reichenbach Falls in his death struggle with his arch enemy Professor Moriarity to his reappearance a few years later. The stories are connected by an underlying theme - that Holmes is working for his brother Mycroft under the pseudonym Mr. Sigerson, not as a spy exactly, but collecting intelligence that may be useful to the British government. The tales take us far and wide across the world from Tibet, Alaska, San Francisco, Thailand, etc. And of course Holmes runs into a number of unlikely crimes that he solves along the way.

But the bottom line is, these stories are mediocre at best and I would not recommend this book.

The "hiatus" (as the lovers of Sherlock Holmes describe the period between his alleged death at Reichenbach in "The Final Problem", and resurfacing at London in "The Empty House") has been subjected to intense scrutiny by fans & scholars alike ever since Sir Arthur had decided to 'reanimate' Holmes, because of the following reasons: -

1) The explanations offered by Holmes to Watson could have sufficed for the latter, but nobody else had been that gullible to accept all the factual errors and inherent contradictions that were there (even more than the whole structure of "The Final Problem").

2) The post-hiatus Holmes was a pale shadow of his former self (So much so, that the followers of the "Game" [i.e. those who believe that Holmes & Watson were real and Cona Doyle had merely been a literary agent] had concluded long back that it was an imposter who had returned).

This enjoyable collection contains attempts being made by different authors to explain the events that might have taken place during this period, best among them definitely being Michael Kurland's own "Reichenbach". Highly recommended.

Depicting one (possible) history of the Master Detective, Sherlock Holmes, readers with be treated to more adventures throughout Europe after his supposed death in battle with Professor Moriarity. Acting as both a spy and detective, I found this rendition enjoyable.

Other reading that I would suggest to Sherlockian fans would be Doyle's brother-in-law's work : E.W. Hornung's, The Crime Doctor. In this collection of fantastic stories, you will be treated to the adventures of the Dr. John Dollar, the physician/detective who many have compared as Raffles (Hornung's more famous creation) counter-point.

Pick up both novels - you will be glad you did!