Sherlock Holmes Pastiche Reading: An Update

[eldritchhobbit]

FYI, an update about reading Sherlock Holmes pastiches...

A year ago, I asked for recommendations of Sherlock Holmes pastiches and received great replies. (Thank you!) I waited until I'd finished going through all of Arthur Conan Doyle's canonical Holmesian writings in order, but now I've embarked on my pastiche reading. I'm still only "baby steps" into the project, but I thought I'd list the novels I've read thus far, ranked in order from my most favorite to my least favorite. My reviews are general, and though they may contain a few spoilers about the premise of a given work, they don't give away any twist endings or key surprises.

There are a couple of new novels on my list since the last time I posted an update!



Novels

Most Favorite Novel Thus Far:
Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson by Lyndsay Faye (2009)
Read my review.

The Mycroft Memoranda by Ray Walsh (1985)
Read my review.

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin (1978)
Read my review.

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz (2011)
Read my review.

The Whitechapel Horrors by Edward B. Hanna (1992)
Read my review.

The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer (1976)
Read my review.

The Seven-Percent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer (1974)
Read my review.

Sherlock Holmes and the Apocalypse Murders by Barry Day (2001)
Read my review.

The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson by Nicholas Meyer (1993)
Read my review.

Lestrade and the Ripper by M.J. Trow (1999)
Read my review.

Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories by John Taylor (2010)
Read my review.


I had difficulty ranking The West End Horror and The Seven-Percent Solution, as they were rather neck-and-neck for me. I'd recommend all of these except Trow's and Taylor's to fans of Holmes in general, but I'd still recommend Taylor's to those specifically who are fans of Benedict Cumberbatch.


Collections

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes edited by John Joseph Adams (2009)
Read my review.

Next up: I need to finish the collection Sherlock Holmes in Orbit, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (1995).


"You are Holmes, the meddler."
My friend smiled.
"Holmes, the busybody!"
His smile broadened.
"Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!"
Holmes chuckled heartily.
- "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," Arthur Conan Doyle

Comments

[lin4gondor.livejournal.com]

Maybe you can help me -- I'm trying to remember the name of a Sherlock Holmes pastiche I read years and years ago (probably in the 1970's). Mycroft was a major character in it, as I recall, and at the end it was revealed that Holmes was from the future or from another planet or some such thing! I know, it sounds really odd, but I actually think it was a decent story. I've always wanted to find it again to see if it was as good as I remember. But I don't seem to have enough to go on to find the title again.

Do you have any idea which one I'm talking about?

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! I might know this one! Could it be "You See But You Do Not Deserve" by Robert J. Sawyer? It's been reprinted in quite a few anthologies. Sherlock is brought into the future by Mycroft to solve the Fermi paradox, and in the end the big reveal regarding aliens is "the aliens are there, Watson — it is not they who are missing, it is us! Our world is out of synch with the rest of the universe." And all of this is because people refused to believe Holmes was dead after Reichenbach Falls.

Does that ring a bell? It's now online here.

It only dates back to 1995, though, so it may be too recent.

If this isn't it, I'll keep an eye out for it. I intend to do more pastiche reading, so I hope to come across it. It sounds fascinating!

[lin4gondor.livejournal.com]

Hello! It's been awhile since we had this conversation, but I wanted to let you know I found the Holmes tale I was looking for! It's called Exit Sherlock Holmes : The Great Detective's Final Days, by Robert Lee Hall. I happened upon this list of pastiches recently -- http://sherlockcares.com/reading-list-sherlock-holmes-pastiche-novels/ -- and was able to track it down from there. Found it on Amazon and it arrived today!

Thanks for your suggestion above, I enjoyed reading it even though it wasn't the one I was looking for. Sorry I never seem to have gotten back to you on that, until now!

[witchcat07.livejournal.com]

*saves this page for future reference*

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad it's useful.

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