The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

~ Marvin Kaye (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These 15 "newly released" cases of the famous detective involve him with such notables as Ida Tarbell, Consuelo Vanderbilt, and James McNeil Whistler. Contributors include Carole Bugge (see above), Jay Sheckley, Roberta Rogow, P.C. Hodgell, et al. A sparkling collection for Sherlock fans.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Interested historians may someday trace Sherlock Holmes's shift from exemplary detective to all-purpose cultural icon to Kaye's third anthology of Sherlockiana (The Resurrected Holmes, 1996, etc.). Except for what turns out to be an uncharacteristically ingenious entry by Henry Slesar, Holmes is tricked out in every guise from Malibu Barbie to Astronaut Barbie--trading compliments with Jacques Futrelle on the doomed Titanic (Edward D. Hoch), getting duped still again by Irene Adler (Aline Myette-Volsky), infiltrating the Fenian Brotherhood at the behest of Professor Moriarty (Carole Bugg), contracting an Arabian Nights marriage (Shariann Lewitt), going undercover in all-too-successful drag (Craig Shaw Gardner), and providing, with Watson, an unsettling preview of Laurel and Hardy's most famous short (Patrick LoBrutto)--except that of Inductive Barbie. Readers with a taste for the bizarre will find the collection typified by Jay Sheckley's fantasia on memory, sex, and circus freaks; purists are hereby warned. Kaye would've provided a real service for consumers by labeling this farrago of 15 stories The Contortions of Sherlock Holmes. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312180713
• ISBN-13: 978-0312180713
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,696,672 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A drab book that lacks excitement, May 2, 1998

By A Customer

I picked up this book expecting to find a book packed with intricate mysteries and excitement only to be disappointed by being presented with a series of stories that I can only describe as lame and totally uninteresting. Luckily, there are a few stories worthy of reading that rescues the book from being given a rating of 2 or less. I was surprised at the inconsistency found in the writing styles. There were only about 4 out of the 15 stories worthy of reading. All the rest would have put any poor soul to sleep by 2nd paragraph! Totally disappointing and not worth being published as a hardcover...way over priced!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Waste Your Money, April 5, 2000

By A Customer

As a long-time Holmes fan, I have read most of the stories written by a surprisingly vast number of authors. I have found, for the most part, that it doesn't make much difference in the quality of the story if the author is a "famous" author or relatively unknown. The writing may be good but the story is trash. As was the case here.

Why do authors have to incorporate famous people with Holmes? How many "ripper" stories have been written? Now we find Holmes on the Titanic -- and apparently the "mystery" was secondary to the description of the ship. We also are subjected to a story regarding Doyle's temptation into adultry -- since when has Holmes been a marriage counselor? And to have him and Watson race to get to the hotel "in time" to prevent it is not only stupid but hokey as well!

A few stories had merit but not enough to make the price of this over size paperback worth it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stories kept hidden for various reasons, January 13, 2001

By	"grrreg" (Newtown, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

The third (and currently last) of editor Marvin Kaye's Sherlock Holmes collections (the previous two being 'The Game's Afoot' and 'The Resurrected Holmes'), this volume continues the good quality of the previous two.

In general, I found the majority of the fifteen stories in this book to be worth a read. The only real failure, in my view, was 'The Little Problem of the Grosvenor Street Furniture Van', but I readily accept that this is due to my personal tastes. The story is notionally written by Arthur Stanley Jefferson (better known by the name he acted under, Stan Laurel) and is a slapstick comedy story. I've never been a fan of slapstick, and even if I had some fondness for it I'd rather see it in its best medium, something visual.

Having said that, the other 14 stories were all fine with me. I'll take the opportunity to specifically mention 'The Affair of the Counterfeit Countess' by Craig Shaw Gardner, which proves that you can tell a successful Holmes story and still be funny, and 'The Secret Marriage of Sherlock Holmes' by Shariann Lewitt, which lives up to its title (!). Both these step outside what one might expect in a Sherlock Holmes story and pull it off well.