Welcome to another Sherlock Holmes Week! I’m starting out with a wild mash-up Sherlock Holmes pastiche called The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall. The novel is set in a future city of Khelathra-Ven. Chaptain John Wyndham (aka, Watson), after being injured in a war in another Universe, answers an advertisement for a lodger at 221b Martyrs Walk (aka, Baker Street). There Wyndham finds the enigmatic Shaharazad Haas (aka, Sherlock Holmes) and promptly finds himself involved in the adventure of a mysterious blackmail letter aimed at Shaharazad’s former lover.
Alexis Hall poses the questions: What if Sherlock Holmes practiced sorcery…and was a woman. The Affair of the Mysterious Letter answers those questions with a dazzling mix of SF aliens, vampires, powerful gods, and surreal technology. Alexis Hall delivers a rollicking thrill-ride as Haas and Wyndham scramble through Time and Space to solve the puzzling scheme. I can’t wait for the next Shaharazad Has adventure! GRADE: B+
The Holmes motif has allowed for many variations; I’d be interested to take a look at this one. I wonder how it would compare to, say, Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy stories, which were riffs on SH.
Jerry, if you like the Lord Darcy stories, you’ll love THE AFFAIR OF THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER. Alexis Hall ups the ante.
I can hear Rick groaning from here. Sounds like a possibility.
Jeff, you would enjoy the hijinks in THE AFFAIR OF THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER. It’s a rollicking ride!
I’m assuming this is the same Alexis Hall who also writes romance novels. His FOR REAL was one of my favorite reads last year—m/m, age-gap, opposites-attract, with a lot of BDSM, but also very emotionally nuanced. I’m not a fan of pastiches, so I doubt I’ll be reading this book, but I can tell you Hall is a very good writer.
Deb, yes…this is the same Alexis Hall that writes romance novels. And, there is some romance in THE AFFAIR OF THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER. But there’s also genre-bending, gender-bending, and pastiche-bending fun!
Why do people have to mess with this character? H was perfectly fine as was. No need for any of this other foolishness! Bah!
Rick, publishers keep buying books that are mashups of Holmes and…something else. You’ll see more bizarre combinations as this SHERLOCK HOLMES WEEK progresses.
The MX Books have the right idea: new stories about the traditional character in the Doyle setting and time period.
Rick, there’s no doubt about the market for “traditional” SHERLOCK HOLMES pastiches–as MX Books has proven.