The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes (1952) is a collection of 12 short stories that try to fill in the gaps left by Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes stories. My favorite stories in The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes are “The Adventure of the Wax Gamblers” and “The Adventure of the Highgate Miracle.” These are two stories that were mostly written by John Dickson Carr.
“The Adventure of the Wax Gamblers” begins with an injured Sherlock Holmes who ends up solving this case like Nero Wolfe would: without leaving his Baker Street apartment. A young woman and her elderly father bring Holmes a puzzle from Madame Taupin’s exhibition of wax figures. Carr manages to mix boxing and code-breaking into the story.
“The Adventure of the Highgate Miracle” revolves around the mystery of. why a man would sleep with his umbrella. The man’s wife challenges Sherlock Holmes to solve this wacky puzzle…and, of course, Holmes does. But the solution is typically clever and outlandish in John Dickson Carr fashion.
If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes provides a dozen diversions. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
ALWAYS HOLMES — vii
Adrian Conan Doyle & John Dickson Carr:
1.) The adventure of the seven clocks — 1
2.) The adventure of the gold hunter — 25
3.) The adventure of the wax gamblers — 45
4.) The adventure of the Highgate miracle — 67
5.) The adventure of the black baronet — 93
6.) The adventure of the sealed room — 113
Adrian Conan Doyle:
7.) The adventure of Foulkes Rath — 137
8.) The adventure of the Abbas ruby — 158
9.) The adventure of the dark angels — 178
10.) The adventure of the two women — 199
11.) The adventure of the Deptford horror — 218
12.) The adventure of the red widow — 240
The stories are based on unrecorded cases mentioned in the original canon. It’s been five decades since I read the book and I truly cannot remember much about it except that I thought it was weak tea. Not to slight John Dickson Car (whose work I love), but give me Sir Arthur any time.
Jerry, “weak tea” pretty much describes the stories in THE EXPLOITS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. The two stories I liked most were written by John Dickson Carr.
Ah. now here’s one I did read. Like Jerry, I don’t remember the details, but I thought it was OK, just pretty mediocre and now up to the real thing.
Jeff, few pastiche writers come close to the real Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. But…I keep looking.
My favorite Sherlock fiction by others remains THE FINAL SOLUTION by Michael Chabon, but I have not read extensively in the supplementary canon.
Todd, I’ll be posting reviews of several “supplementary Canon” novels in the weeks ahead. It seems like a new Sherlock Holmes pastiche gets published every month!
I read the red widow ( and kept on reading it as red window) recently but just can’t recall where. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
Neeru, I don’t know any red widows but I did read John Dickson Carr’s The Red Widow Murder.