52 Weeks | 52 Sherlock Holmes Novels - Inspired, Created, and Edited by Paul Bishop

It’s been many years since I read the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I did read the complete canon back then. However, then came a long drought before I eventually began picking up a few pastiches this past year, largely due to Paul Bishop’s enthusiastic blogging about his latest passion. This book has done wonders to reinvigorate my desire to dig back into the adventures of the great detective.

This volume comprises 52 different offerings submitted by various contributors, encompassing the wide and diverse universe of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock-adjacent material. Most are novels but other forms of media are represented or referenced such as comics, movies, and TV shows. Additionally, we are treated to several essays about such subjects as collecting, publishing, illustrating, and even engineering Sherlockian merchandise.

I’m sure this is a book that is not meant to be read from cover to cover but, rather, to be dipped into now and again and perused at a leisurely pace. While I may well do that in the future, I am who I am, and therefore, not content to wait around for the appropriate time to dip my toe in once more. Consequently, I did choose to read this entire volume from start to finish. However, I wanted to savor it over time so I limited myself to reading two to three entries each evening. I found this to be a great way to absorb the content and appreciate the perspectives of the various contributors even more.

Speaking of the contributors, they are all well connected to the Sherlockian universe in one way or another. Most are authors in their own right and have penned tales in the milieu themselves. Their 52 entries cover the entire gamut including traditional Holmesian tales that could have been written by Doyle himself, to those that include supernatural, science fiction, western, or horror elements. Several feature characters other than Holmes or Watson and include entries following Mycroft, or Moriarty, or Irene Adler. I found every single one to be an interesting and insightful read. 

So, did this book serve its purpose? I should say so! While I have read a few of the 52 entries, and have heard of a few of the others, I can honestly say that I now have many more on my TBR list.

Inspired by this book, it's time to end this review and start reading my newest acquisition, one of the 52 highlighted in these pages: "Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows", the first of the Cthulhu Casebook series by James Lovegrove. 

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

In the days following the disappearance of both Sherlock Homes and Professor James Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls, a new criminal mastermind has come on the scene. Clarence Devereux, a crime boss from America has decided to take over Moriarty’s criminal empire, filling the void. On his trail is a senior Pinkerton investigator by the name of Frederick Chase who joins forces with a Scotland Yard detective named Athelney Jones.

Interestingly, Jones appeared in the Holmes story, The Sign of the Four, but felt he came off in a bad light. Consequently, he has devoted the last several years of his professional life to studying the methods and techniques of Sherlock, himself, and so he now is quite good at the deductive reasoning approach.

This was a wonderful detective yarn, filled with great characters, a Sherlockian-style London atmosphere, and an evil menacing plot. It was like reading a Sherlock Holmes story even though Holmes wasn't in it. Our two protagonists, Jones and Chase fill the roles of Holmes and Watson admirably although neither quite meets the mold of their role models. There are also a number of other Sherlockian characters and references from Conan Doyles’ stories that show up including from ‘The Speckled Band’ and ‘The Red-Headed League’.

There is a huge twist at the end and even though I’ve read Horowitz before and even though I suspected not all was as it seemed, I was still caught up in a “Holy Cow” moment when it happened. It is important to note that this is an “fair-play” mystery, meaning it doesn’t cheat the reader out of any clues. All is there to be worked out on your own…it’s just that I had it figured wrong.

Yet another wonderful read from one of my top 5 authors of all genres. I’m glad he is so prolific because I want to keep reading his work for many years to come.

Sherlock Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook - Edited by Howard Hopkins

This is a fun collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. They are all crossover cases, meaning prominent figures of fiction and history “crossover” into a Sherlock story and work with Holmes and Watson to solve a case. Guest stars include Professor Challenger, Sexton Blake, Harry Houdini, Dr. Moreau, Arsene Lupin, Lawrence of Arabia, Colonel Savage and more. Contributing authors include giants of the crossover genre like Win Scott Eckert, Will Murray, and Joe Gentile. 

Most of the stories are written along the traditional Sherlockian lines but the final one, “The Adventure of the Lost Specialist” penned by Christopher Sequeira strays into the realm of the weird and strange. Nothing wrong with that and I did like it, but it seems a bit out of place among the rest. My favorite story in the collection is the humorous yarn entitled, “The Haunted Manor” written by Howard Hopkins and featuring Calamity Jane.

I read these over time, not back to back which is the best way for me to avoid burnout on one particular genre. As with all anthologies some stories are more enjoyable than others, but I genuinely liked every tale presented.  Some authors were new to me and so, of course, I now have more stories to seek out.