Synopsis
A new collection of adventures and mystery stories featuring the inimitable sleuth Sherlock Holmes encompasses fifteen tales written by Morgan Llywelyn, Richard Lupoff, Mike Resnick, Craig Shaw Gardner, Edward D. Hoch, and others.
Reviews
Kaye (The Game Is Afoot; Fantastique) builds this collection on the premise that prominent authors, e.g., Theodore Dreiser, P.G. Wodehouse, Dashiell Hammett and Edgar Rice Burroughs, were hired by a reclusive collector to make sense of the case notes left by Watson in his tin dispatch box. Kaye has asked contemporary authors to write in the style of genre forbears. Thus, Paula Volsky writes the dramatic "The Giant Rat of Sumatra" in the style of Lovecraft; Mike Resnick the hilarious "Mrs. Vamberry Takes a Trip" as Thorne Smith. In most cases, the adopted style is well-crafted, with the authors adroitly capturing the feel of their models. A few, such as Kaye's own Rex Stout parody, might have better remained in the tin box. As a whole, however, the book is a stout effort, and editor Kaye deserves congratulations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A tricky concept: a series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches based on titles of cases referred to in passing by Dr. Watson, each supposedly fleshed out by a different prominent author. Don't worry about disentangling the strands of stylistic parody: Over half the 15 original contributions get the formula exactly backwards, presenting stories supposedly plotted by Theodore Dreiser (actually Terry McGarry), Ernest Hemingway (Morgan Llywelyn), C.S. Forester (Peter Cannon), and Ellery Queen (Edward D. Hoch) in Watson's own voice. The more thoroughgoing stylistic imitations, meanwhile, of P.G. Wodehouse (Roberta Rogow), Jack Kerouac (Richard A. Lupoff), Dashiell Hammett (Carole Bugg‚), Mickey Spillane (William L. DeAndrea), and Rex Stout (veteran editor Kaye) are more conscientious than entertaining. Still, Sherlockians left unsatisfied by Kaye's anthology The Game is Afoot (1994) will be glad to have the Adventures of the Amateur Mendicant Society, the Red Leech, the Giant Rat of Sumatra, and, of course, the Politician, the Lighthouse, and the Trained Cormorant. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Kaye has edited a clever concoction of "new" Sherlock Holmes cases. In amusing, tongue-in-cheek manner, each of the 15 stories provided is purported to be based on a caper originally outlined by Dr. Watson but penned by various well-known literary masters. Readers will be delighted by tales of Sherlock Holmes written in the diverse and unique styles of such authors as H. G. Wells, Ernest Hemingway, P. G. Wodehouse, and Mickey Spillane. This entertaining and inventive collection serves as a testament to the enduring popularity of the lives and times of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, two of Western literature's most intriguing characters. A must-read for the ever-loyal throng of Baker Street fans. Margaret Flanagan
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
