Customer Reviews

A Study in Sherlock: Stories inspired by the Holmes canon

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

When this book was announced several months ago, the concept sounded great: Find noted authors, such as Lee Childs, and get them to write Sherlock Holmes stories. Can you imagine what the creator of Reacher could have done with Holmes and Watson? It might have been one of the best Holmes pastiches ever. What finally showed up was a big let-down. I had hoped that this would be like some of the better Holmes anthologies of the past decade or so, including "Holmes for the Holidays," "More Holmes for the Holidays," "Murder My Dear Watson," "Murder in Baker Street," and others. Each of these had pastiches by noted mystery authors, such as Anne Perry, writing traditional Holmes and Watson stories in the correct period. This book, however, allowed most of the authors to write whatever they felt like, simply using Holmes as a jumping-off place.

Only about one-third of the stories are anything like a traditional Holmes adventure. The Lee Childs story was particularly disappointing. I was really looking forward to seeing his take on our heroes. Instead, he wrote a story set in modern London. And don't be fooled - the Lee Child story is only seven pages. Just long enough to get his name on the cover and sell the book to some of his fans.

Another author, who apparently couldn't come up with an idea, drew an amateur comic book that runs on for far too many pages, and has nothing to do with the traditional Holmes and Watson.

Finally, the book ends with a Twitter interview between editor Les Klinger and Laurie R. King, the other editor, who is writing as her bread-and-butter character, Mary Russell. Russell is supposedly Holmes's wife in King's novels, and is now at least one-hundred-and-twelve years old, according to King's internal chronology. Pretty amazing for an extremely advanced senior to understand Twitter. The less said about this story the better.

I will be looking forward to the next true Holmes and Watson collection, whenever it appears. If you liked the recent British television show "Sherlock," which features characters based on Holmes and Watson BUT ARE NOT HOLMES AND WATSON, then you might like this book. (I believe that Mr. Klinger was an advisor for that show, so he probably encourages this type of non-traditional Holmes.) If you want the real thing, only parts of this book will please you.

I was so excited, as only a geeky Sherlockian can be, when I heard almost a year ago that Laurie King and Les Klinger had a new compilation in the works. All right, I will admit to some nervousness about Mrs King being involved with the project, because her take on Holmes is too far removed from the consulting detective of Canon for my tastes. That aside, I was convinced this had at least the potential to be one of the better short story volumes and never expected 'A Study In Sherlock' to even remotely be a publication intended to cash in on Holmes' recent surge in popularity.

Everything I'd heard about this right before its release hailed this book as being fresh and innovative. After having read through it, I wonder if that wasn't a polite way of saying it had almost nothing at all to do with Sherlock Holmes - oh, don't get me wrong! I have NOTHING whatsoever against taking some creative liberties with the characters, and neither did Doyle, for that matter. But overall, this so utterly lacked the flavour of Canon, so consistently strayed from the original stories (or even any of the well done adaptations out there), I had a difficult time reconciling the vast majority of these as pastiches. A pastiche is a story that attempts, at least in part, to re-create some of what we all love about the Holmes Canon. This didn't even try.

For example, while the story in the form of a graphic novel set in the present day was an imaginative idea, I failed to take anything from it, and have seen better done graphic fanworks - which actually included the detective and managed to be more intelligent and engaging. I'm not so stodgy - at least, I don't think I am - that I cannot appreciate deviations, but a comic strip involving a pack of dogs featuring an appearance by Larry King did not strike me as being innovatively witty. Just stupid. Or the modern day story of a female detective named 'Sheila-Locke', which had all the hallmarks of a badly written genderswap fan fic, complete with a fifth grade Mary-Sue. Yup. This one was actually about a 10 year old modern girl named Sheila-Lock who apparently solves mysteries (which could have been better crafted by said 10yr old fan fic writer) though not even Holmes' deductive process came into play.

I truly wish this review was an exaggeration. I WANTED to enjoy this, to have some fresh Holmes mysteries to get caught up in, though of all the poorly done pastiches I've read, this is probably the worst. My advice would be to save your money for better, more intelligent and faithful delvings into 221B. This one is for the rubbish bin. I refuse to even sell it and inflict this nonsense on anyone else.

I have to agree with at least one other reviewer of this long-awaited (at least by me) collection: A complete and total let-down and a waste of money. I am about as familiar with Doyle's canon as anyone (including all the Edgar winners and Baker Street Irregulars quoted) and I can tell you what the great author would have thought about these feeble attempts to follow up on his work: RUBBISH!! Holmes and Watson are whisked away to upstate New York to help fake the President's assassination. That's it, folks. Nothing to deduce, no great turn of events (think Second Stain or Silver Blaze). Lee Child falls spectacularly on his face - the game is not afoot, the game is over, (as he would have Jack Reacher say), before the middle of his anemic contribution. You know, I really think that it would be helpful if there were some LAWS about writing any type of pastiche about SH: we have ALL read how Holmes made deductions about where Watson had been and what he had been doing at their first meeting. Don't say the same thing over and over again in almost the same language and then try to pass it off as your own cleverness. We ALL know that to him Irene Adler was always THE woman. And enough with the "that shade of mud is only found on the feet of the three-toed sloth, and I only know two in all of England". For gosh sake, do something original within the structure of the adventure. There are, indeed, many worthy pastiches/adaptations that are out there by the famous (Stephen King's "The Doctor's Case") and not so famous. As for this compendium of "adventures", save your money, folks. It just doesn't get any worse than this.

When two of my favorite Sherlock Holmes authors/scholars teamed up to put together a new Sherlock Holmes anthology, I was extremely excited. The book, A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, edited by Leslie Klinger and Laurie King, is terrific and a must read for Holmes devotees.

Les Klinger is a Sherlock Holmes scholar extraordinaire. Several years ago, he published The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories and The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels. The scholarship is amazing; the books are beautiful. Laurie King picked up the Sherlock Holmes stories from Holmes' retirement and added a new, smart, spunky partner, Mary Russell, and started a wildly successful series. The latest installment is The Pirate King.

King and Klinger rounded up some of the best, current mystery writer talents and asked them to write a story that is inspired by the Canon. A list of the contributors is below. The writers had a lot of license. Some of the stories are classic pastiches (stories that pattern Doyle's style). Some of the stories are set in modern times and only loosely (but faithfully) tie to the Canon. One story is told in the form of a blog. Another is set in Alaska. There is even a graphic novel short story (it is not included in the Kindle version I believe).

The contributors are as follows:

Alan Bradley
Tony Broadbent
Jan Burke
Lionel Chetwynd
Lee Child
Colin Cotterill
Neil Gaiman
Laura Lippman
Gayle Lynds and John Sheldon
Phillip Margolin and Jerry Margolin
Margaret Maron
Thomas Perry
S. J. Rozan
Dana Stabenow
Charles Todd
Jackie Winspear

The game is afoot.

What happens when two Sherlockian `powerhouses' get together and curate a book of short stories whose unifying theme is also the misleadingly simple subtitle "inspired by the Holmes Canon"? A "cleaner, better, stronger" pastiche collection is precisely what happens! The stories range from adroit and inventive to intensely brooding and introspective, while each possessing the indelible fingerprints of Sherlockian eximius Leslie S. Klinger and Laurie R. King.

If you are unfamiliar with the work of either Klinger or King, it is sufficient to know that Les Klinger is the annotator, having published the three volume New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (Norton), Wessex Press' The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library (10 volumes) and an assortment of Sherlockian scholarship anthologies. Ms. Laurie King is equally prolific focusing more on Holmes-inspired fiction in her (to date) eleven volume Mary Russell series, but is also collaborating with Klinger on volume two of their The Grand Game anthology, highlighting and organizing key pieces of Sherlockian scholarship (from sources like Baker Street Journal or various other scion journals).

Credentials though important take a back seat to a much more essential property required to successfully pull off a 'A Study in Sherlock': a deep, intense, personal relationship with Sherlock Holmes, the Canon and Sherlockian pastiches as well as the individuals/communities which generate them. To date, according to Philip K. Jones and his Pastiche database, there are over 9000 Holmes pastiches in existence. If the K-Team wanted to break new ground, simply choosing `good' or `entertaining' Holmes pastiches wasn't enough; risks would have to be taken and minds would have to be blown, or at least significantly challenged.

Indeed, K & K took some serious curatorial risks, but the gambit paid off and they ultimately succeeded in putting together a collection of stories which entertain, enthrall and amuse but more importantly challenge the reader's expectations of what Sherlockian pastiche qua genre is and can be. Though the narrative quality of the stories vary from excellent to pretty good (there are no stinkers in this one), each one excels at inviting/daring/tricking the reader into re-interpreting the essence of a `Holmes story'.

Klinger and King have put together an unique and groundbreaking collection that sets a precedent for future pastiche/Sherlockian collections that strive to be greater than simply a jumble of quasi-Holmesian sounding, ACD-ish short stories; though the blade was straight, King and Klinger have made it straighter, while the steel, assumed true, indeed proved to be truer.

This is a collection of short stories based (some rather loosely) on Sherlock Holmes. The volume is introduced and closed by the editors, Laurie R. King, author of the Mary Russell series and Leslie S. Klinger, editor of THE NEW ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES. The eighteen stories are all written by well known mystery novels and each brings a unique take on the Holmes canon. The results are rather uneven, as might be expected from so many distinctive voices. I would recommend checking out this if any of the contributors are favorite authors, to see how they handle the challenge but anyone looking for a truly 'Holmesian' experience might be disappointed.

I found the results a bit uneven. Some favorite authors reminded me why they are my favorites, some authors I was unfamiliar with are now on my to be read list and others are on the don't bother one.

I am only a third of the way through this book and already am skipping through the book looking for anything resembling Holmes and Watson. Story quality is not great and feels thrown together. Really, pages of a sad graphic novel on why you couldn't write a Holmes story, really? I rarely get rid of books but this one is gone. Way better anthologies out there than this(i.e Marvin Kaye or Martin Greenberg). Save your money, seriously, especially if you are a Holmes purist.

The announcement of any new Holmes anthology should be a thing of joy for any true Sherlockian. This, however, was a disaster. Holmes or Watson appeared in very few of the stories collected here. The best of the bunch was probably The Men With The Twisted Lips, in which we can see Holmes happily plying his trade in the background. In most of the others, he isn't even mentioned, which begs the question, why were they included in this anthology? The only reason I can think of is to increase sales. I seriously doubt Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have approved. If you are a true Fan of the Man, spend your book dollar soemwhere else. Put this one back on the shelf.

This is a collection of short stories by authors experienced in various genres. Unfortunately, for some of them, the art of the short story proves elusive. The first two selections are, frankly, bad (the second in particular, by Tony Broadbent, seems to serve as little more than proof that Mr. Broadbent can use IMDB and is capable of providing extremely awkward expository dialogue which serves no eventual purpose). Luckily, the other authors seem to pick up the slack. Particular highlights are Neil Gaiman's "The Case of Death and Honey," the Margolins' "Adventure of the Purloined Paget," and "The Last of Sheila Locke-Holmes," by Laura Lippman.

Not every case is well-written or particularly interesting, and it should be noted that these aren't, strictly speaking, Holmes stories. John and Sherlock feature in some, but not all; most feature characters who are "inspired by," using deduction to solve cases. Still, for those who aren't strict Holmes fanatics, this is a fun collection and a way to check out the works of authors with which you mightn't be familiar. Not art, but occasionally entertaining. (With the exception of Gaiman's--as you might expect, Mr. Gaiman produces a short story both mysterious and artistically satisfying.)

Aside from one story about a mystery solved by Dr Watson and Mrs Hudson,the remainder were not Sherlock Holmes stories. Few even featured Sherlock, even as a parody. Many were set in the present. One even submitted a stupid graphic depiction bragging that he new nothing about Sherlock Holmes but did the assignment anyway. Ha! Ha! This was truly dreadful.
However, I do blame myself partly. I noted only after buying this book that one of the editors was Laurie King, who has written an entire series making Sherlock look like an old fool. However, this book was even worse. It makes anyone who buys the book feel like a fool.