This is the latest volume of Sherlock Holmes pastiches edited by the capable David Marcum. If you’re a Sherlock Holmes fan some of these short stories will delight you. Others…not so much.
I was very moved by Michael Sims’s reflection, “The Dark Lantern,” where Sims writes about his battle with juvenile arthritis that left him wheelchair-bound. However, during a hospital stay, Sims discovered Sherlock Holmes and open a whole new area of interest in his life. You can read my review of Michael Sims’s latest anthology, The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries here).
My favorite story in The MX Book of New SHERLOCK HOLMES Stories: Part XXXVII is David Marcum’s “The Abridge Disappearance” where a missing college student draws Holmes and Watson into a desperate search.
I’ve read several anthologies of Sherlock Holmes pastiches lately so I’ll be taking a break from this genre for a couple of months. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Editor’s Foreword: The Sherlockian Reformation / David Marcum — 1
Dark Lantern / Michael Sims — 10
“What Is It That We Love In Sherlock Holmes?” / Roger Johnson — 14
An Ongoing Legacy for Sherlock Holmes / Steve Emecz — 16
A Word from Undershaw / Emma West –18
Moriarty (A Poem) / Kevin Patrick McCann — 33
The Adventure of the Improbable American / Will Murray — 35
The Return of Spring-Heeled Jack / Brenda Seabrooke — 49
The Incident of the Pointless Abduction / Arthur Hall — 72
The Adventure of the Absent Crossing Sweeper / Steven Philip Jones — 89
The Adventure of the Disappearing Daughter / Dan Rowley and Don Baxter — 125
The Abridge Disappearance / David Marcum — 142
The Adventure of the Green Horse / Hugh Ashton –170
The Adventure of Woodgate Manor / Sonya Kudei –183
The Incident of the Mangled Rose Bushes / Barry Clay — 208
The Sandwich Murder / DJ Tyrer — 226
The Adventure of the Wandering Stones / Mark Wardecker — 238
The Charity Collection / Paul Hiscock — 251
The Catastrophic Cyclist / Tom Turley — 268
The Adventure of the Sketched Bride / 282
The Adventure of the Downing Street Demise / James Gelter — 308
The Continental Conspiracy / Martin Daley — 338
The Belmore Street Museum Affair / Bob Byrne — 359
The Adventure of the Furniture Collector / Tracy Revels — 380
The Serpent’s Tooth — Matthew White — 397
About the Contributors — 415
I tend to avoid anthologies where I don’t recognize a single name.
Steve, you’re right: no-name anthologies can be a risky business. But I’m sure you recognize Will Murray who wrote the Doc Savage pastiches.
Since I have no interestr in Doc Savage I don’t recognize the name.
Man, there are a lot of these, even more than Lovecraft pastiches. I agree with Steve, though. I want at least a percentage of stories to be by someone I’ve heard of.
Jeff, there’s a charitable aspect to this MX series.
I remember seeing a review of one of the earlier books in this series at Rick’s blog. I have not yet read all the novels in the original series and only a few of the short stories. I hope to read some of each by the end of this year.
And Doyle didn’t write too many novels in the series…his followers have done vastly more!
Todd, Sherlock Holmes fans have found a home in these proliferating pastiche anthologies. Someone is buying them…