Non-Canon Sherlock Holmes

[chongjasmine]

Any recommended non-can sherlock holmes stories?

Preferably read like canon.

[besleybean]

I really like Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk...but many didn't!

[Carol the Dabbler]

38 minutes ago, besleybean said:

I really like Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk...but many didn't!

There's only one of me, but I really didn't!

 

[besleybean]

Did you like his Moriarty?

[Carol the Dabbler]

5 minutes ago, besleybean said:

Did you like his Moriarty?

Sorry, I don't actually remember his Moriarty.  I read the book only once of course, and I mostly recall realizing very early how the story would turn out.  The only thing that kept me reading was the hope that I was mistaken -- but unfortunately I wasn't.  I seem to recall liking his Watson, though.

 

[SherlockHolmesRevisited]

On 1/25/2022 at 2:32 PM, chongjasmine said:

Any recommended non-can sherlock holmes stories?

Preferably read like canon.

The Forgotten Cases of Sherlock Holmes by Anon   The Forgotten Cases of Sherlock Holmes by Anon | Waterstones

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hello, SherlockHolmesRevisited -- welcome to Sherlock Forum!  

What do you particularly like about that book?

 

[HerlockSholmes]

Lots of great pastiche writers out there. If I had to suggest one I’d say checkout Denis O Smith. He’s done quite a few collections. Absolutely brilliant.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hey, Herlock -- nice to see you again!

 

[HerlockSholmes]

Hi Carol, I hope you’re well?

[Hikari]

On 9/5/2022 at 5:05 PM, HerlockSholmes said:

Lots of great pastiche writers out there. If I had to suggest one I’d say checkout Denis O Smith. He’s done quite a few collections. Absolutely brilliant.

I can second my mate Herlock's recommendation of Denis O. Smith.  For a wide selection of some of the best Holmes pastiche out there, try any volume of David Marcum's MX New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes anthologies.  Collected in 32 volumes since 2015, averaging about 3 a year, that's over 700 new Holmes adventures to choose from. Quite a few of these are Denis's.  I am still lost way back in the upper teens somewhere as I had to call a halt to my pastiche collecting.  It was becoming obsessive and I've gotta say, these are all very thick books.  100% of the profits go to support Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's former home, Undershaw, which after having fallen into rack and ruin, has been renovated into a thriving school community for students with developmental disabilities, thanks in part to the proceeds from these books.  There is also a Conan Doyle/Holmes museum/shrine on the site that welcomes the public when school is not in session.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mx+sherlock+holmes&crid=29AWRQKU2P199&sprefix=MX+sherlock+ho%2Caps%2C81&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_14

The problem with choosing pastiches is not that there isn't enough to choose from--it's the reverse.  There are seemingly dozens of new Sherlock Holmes projects being released annually in books, TV and film.  Some of it stellar, a lot of it mediocre to terrible.  I have zero interest in making Sherlock Holmes a space man on Mars, thank you.

Off the top of my head, my very favorite story in the entire collection is in Book V: Christmas Adventures (2016) and details the carnage that ensues when Mrs. Hudson leaves her two bachelor tenants alone during the festive period because she's gone to see her niece who's having a baby.  Left to their own devices, Sherlock and John decide that yes, a graduate chemist highly trained in forensic methodology and a top flight medical surgeon CAN handle preparing their own Christmas dinner with all the fixings.  In this estimation, they are quite, quite wrong.  Why is it that Sherlock Holmes can deduce a man's entire life history from his cuffs but firing up an oven stymies him altogether? Among his esoteric skills, cookery is not on the list, and Dr. Watson is equally hopeless.  One might have expected a surgeon to have more fortitude when it came to cutting up a dead bird.   Let's just say it's good that Mrs. Hudson was not at home to see what her two bachelors plus assorted street urchins did to the place while she was gone.

Another favorite adventure, this from the collection "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes" (King and Klinger, eds.) is 'Dunkirk' by John Lescroart.  During Operation Dynamo in May, 1940, a mysterious, very old but extremely vigorous gentleman, name of Sigerson, does his bit to evacuate the Dunkirk beaches to the amazement of everyone.  Mark Rylance, who captained such a vessel in the Christopher Nolan movie of the same title really could have used Sigerson aboard and things would have turned out better for him and his crew.

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 9/20/2022 at 12:21 PM, Hikari said:

my very favorite story in the entire collection is in Book V: Christmas Adventures (2016) and details the carnage that ensues when Mrs. Hudson leaves her two bachelor tenants alone during the festive period because she's gone to see her niece who's having a baby.  Left to their own devices, Sherlock and John decide that yes, a graduate chemist highly trained in forensic methodology and a top flight medical surgeon CAN handle preparing their own Christmas dinner with all the fixings.

If these were the BBC Sherlock and John, I would have thought that they were at least a little more familiar with their own kitchen.  But I assume it's ACD's Holmes and Watson (who apparently had no kitchen of their own).  Sounds delightful!

 

[Hikari]

21 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

If these were the BBC Sherlock and John, I would have thought that they were at least a little more familiar with their own kitchen.  But I assume it's ACD's Holmes and Watson (who apparently had no kitchen of their own).  Sounds delightful!

Definitely an homage to ACD's Holmes and Watson.  Mr. Marcum is a purist non pareil and only recognizes the 'canonical' Holmes universe.   He has dedicated his life to the Great Holmes Tapestry and 'discovering' new Holmes and Watson adventures--so long as they are plausibly within the era and the milieu created by ACD.  Therefore Holmes and Watson must remain English gentlemen of the mid-late Victorian/Edwardian era, doing situationally appropriate things . . Sherlock Holmes therefore cannot morph into a Japanese woman, an inhabitant of the 21st century, blast off to Mars, etc.  Mr Marcum also strenuously rejects the conception of Holmes as presented by Laurie R. King in her books. Laurie's got the era right but she's taken unforgiveable liberties in other areas, principally in having SH marry a half-American girl young enough to be his granddaughter and then promptly more or less disappear from the books altogether as time goes by.

The story I mention, I think the title is aptly enough, "The Christmas Goose", is firmly in the ACD tradition.  It is set early in the partnership, during one of the first Christmases the pair are at 221B.  Initially the Christmas dinner was to be overseen by the kitchen girl, but she is trapped in quarantine after going to visit her family and is unable to come back to Baker Street to cook the goose that is rapidly in danger of going off.  Under the circumstances the boys have no choice but to use Mrs. Hudson's kitchen, but rationalize that she wouldn't want them to starve. What does happen when she's gone she's better off not knowing and the duo and the Irregulars mostly  have the place set to rights by the time she gets back.

[HerlockSholmes]

On 9/20/2022 at 5:21 PM, Hikari said:

I can second my mate Herlock's recommendation of Denis O. Smith.  For a wide selection of some of the best Holmes pastiche out there, try any volume of David Marcum's MX New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes anthologies.  Collected in 32 volumes since 2015, averaging about 3 a year, that's over 700 new Holmes adventures to choose from. Quite a few of these are Denis's.  I am still lost way back in the upper teens somewhere as I had to call a halt to my pastiche collecting.  It was becoming obsessive and I've gotta say, these are all very thick books.  100% of the profits go to support Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's former home, Undershaw, which after having fallen into rack and ruin, has been renovated into a thriving school community for students with developmental disabilities, thanks in part to the proceeds from these books.  There is also a Conan Doyle/Holmes museum/shrine on the site that welcomes the public when school is not in session.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mx+sherlock+holmes&crid=29AWRQKU2P199&sprefix=MX+sherlock+ho%2Caps%2C81&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_14

The problem with choosing pastiches is not that there isn't enough to choose from--it's the reverse.  There are seemingly dozens of new Sherlock Holmes projects being released annually in books, TV and film.  Some of it stellar, a lot of it mediocre to terrible.  I have zero interest in making Sherlock Holmes a space man on Mars, thank you.

Off the top of my head, my very favorite story in the entire collection is in Book V: Christmas Adventures (2016) and details the carnage that ensues when Mrs. Hudson leaves her two bachelor tenants alone during the festive period because she's gone to see her niece who's having a baby.  Left to their own devices, Sherlock and John decide that yes, a graduate chemist highly trained in forensic methodology and a top flight medical surgeon CAN handle preparing their own Christmas dinner with all the fixings.  In this estimation, they are quite, quite wrong.  Why is it that Sherlock Holmes can deduce a man's entire life history from his cuffs but firing up an oven stymies him altogether? Among his esoteric skills, cookery is not on the list, and Dr. Watson is equally hopeless.  One might have expected a surgeon to have more fortitude when it came to cutting up a dead bird.   Let's just say it's good that Mrs. Hudson was not at home to see what her two bachelors plus assorted street urchins did to the place while she was gone.

Another favorite adventure, this from the collection "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes" (King and Klinger, eds.) is 'Dunkirk' by John Lescroart.  During Operation Dynamo in May, 1940, a mysterious, very old but extremely vigorous gentleman, name of Sigerson, does his bit to evacuate the Dunkirk beaches to the amazement of everyone.  Mark Rylance, who captained such a vessel in the Christopher Nolan movie of the same title really could have used Sigerson aboard and things would have turned out better for him and his crew.

 

 

‘Dunkirk’ is a cracker of a story. I’ve called a temporary halt on pastiche buying too but you’re ahead of me on the MX series. I think I’m up to 9 or 10 so far although I do have all of David Marcum’s Solar Pons stuff plus his Holmes and Pons working together books that I know you haven’t gone for. So many to choose from. One individual story I’d have to recommend as a classic it’s The Adventure Of The Unique Hamlet by Vincent Starrett. Brilliant. You can read it here without needing to buy it. It’s not a long story.

I’d recommend anyone to take a very few minutes and read it and see that it’s easily good enough to have been written by Doyle. And although I hate to say it, it’s better than some of Doyle’s stories.

http://www.bestofsherlock.com/story/unique-hamlet-text.htm

I know that you’ve read it of course Hikari.

[HerlockSholmes]

On 9/20/2022 at 8:26 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

If these were the BBC Sherlock and John, I would have thought that they were at least a little more familiar with their own kitchen.  But I assume it's ACD's Holmes and Watson (who apparently had no kitchen of their own).  Sounds delightful!

 

A Victorian gentleman….in the kitchen….the very thought Carol.😄

[chongjasmine]

Thanks.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Glad to see you back, chongjasmine!