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Post by dem bones on Mar 3, 2008 12:19:19 GMT
Michael Dibden - The Last Sherlock Holmes Story (Jonathan Cape, 1978: Faber & Faber, 1989, 1990 [with corrections]) A manuscript is found among the late Dr. Watson's effects which he has left strict instructions to leave unopened until 1972. The document details Sherlock Holmes' involvement in the hunt for Jack the Ripper. It begins when Holmes, at the height of his cocaine addiction and bored to distraction by the day's mundane criminals, is approached by Lestrade for his assistance in solving the Whitechapel murders. Needless to say he jumps at the opportunity to test his mettle versus so worthy an adversary: this Saucy Jack is so cunning he might almost be the great detective himself! Watson goes on to reveal, not only the true identity of the Ripper (you've definitely heard of him), but also the master criminal Moriaty who maybe isn't quite as black as previously painted. He also gives the real account of Holmes' death as opposed to that which he tricked up as The Final Problem. It's a brisk, irreverent read [190 pages], ghoulishly funny in part, but not without moments of sheer horror, most notably when Watson - who is himself involuntarily half out of his mind on drugs - chances upon the Ripper as he methodically mutilates Mary Kelly and, later, discovers a bottle containing the fetus torn from her womb in the maniac's lair. P. S. In case you're wondering at the cover, I put this up instead as the one to my copy of The Last Sherlock Holmes Story is just too skanky to tolerate. ****** FunkdoobyI've got a paperback copy of this novel and have read it several times over the years. Along with Exit Sherlock Holmes: The Last Days Of The Great Detective by Robert Lee Hall, this is one of those stories that takes just a bit too much of a liberty. But it's good fun, nonetheless. TheLurkerInTheShadowsA fab little book. One of my favourite Holmes pastiches. But not one to discuss on Holmesian forums unless you want to start a war. This book genuinely seems to anger some people. Mind you, I'd probably get angry if I ever read any of Laurie R. King's Holmes books. Retired Holmes ends up married to a girl in her twenties (who he first meets as a 15 year old)? What fresh hell is this? ripperThe only Holmes pastiche I've read is Sherlock Holmes Vs Dracula, and I thought it was okay. I like the idea of SH tackling supernatural foes or real-life psychos like JTR. SH dating a 15-year old? Hmmmm.....that's a bit strong and out of character from the SH yarns I've read. Even the SH/Watson more than good friends idea is more credible than that (and everyone knows SH is a red-blooded Englishman). TheLurkerInTheShadowsAs far as I'm aware he doesn't actually get romantically involved with her till she's a few years older, but I've no intention of reading the books to find out.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 30, 2010 20:57:57 GMT
Michael Dibden - The Last Sherlock Holmes Story (Sphere, 1980) `The game's afoot' - and -Sherlock Holmes faces the ultimate deadly challenge!
In September 1888, a series of vile and bloody murders occurs in Whitechapel, London. Women of doubtful morals are found with their throats cut and their bodies horribly mutilated. A horrified public aptly names the killer JACK THE RIPPER.
When Scotland Yard fails to apprehend the fiendish murderer a public outcry ensues. In desperation the authorities turn to London's most eminent detective - SHERLOCK HOLMES.
As Dr Watson faithfully follows the master, recording each trace of the ghastly outrage, the identity of the notorious criminal comes hideously into focus - threatening to push the famous pair to the very brink of madness ...
THE LAST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY is the chilling saga of Sherlock Holmes's final curtain call. It will startle and amaze the reader as the ultimate stunning truth is unveiled!Double bonus; a Sphere horror i wasn't aware of and, at last, a copy with appropriately lurid cover artwork (the Penguin edition i have has a cover so boring even i couldn't bring myself to post it). As Lurker mentions above, The Last Sherlock Holmes Story did not go down particularly well with a section of the master detective's adoring public and, truth to tell, it is not difficult to see why. Fortunately, this is Vault so we don't care too much if Holmes is depicted as the beastliest, most psychotic cad of all time - in fact, it does much to enhances his rep.
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Post by marksamuels on Aug 30, 2010 21:36:18 GMT
Oh no! This is another book that sent me ga-ga with ire. I first read it when I was going through as much Sherlock Holmes as I could find (in my mid-late teens I suppose). I mean, blimey, in the name of Mrs Hudson's dumplings, the twist was...was... just plain wrong.
I've not touched another Dibdin book since then, despite a colleague in my old job trying to encourage me to read his Aurelio (sp?) Zen books.
Mentally scarred for life I was. Really.
Mark S.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 1, 2010 8:30:31 GMT
Oh no! This is another book that sent me ga-ga with ire. I first read it when I was going through as much Sherlock Holmes as I could find (in my mid-late teens I suppose). I mean, blimey, in the name of Mrs Hudson's dumplings, the twist was...was... just plain wrong. Mark S.  Sherlock Holmes: psychotic killer! yeah, have some sympathy for the Holmes lovers who felt like that about it, but me being me, all i could wonder why nobody had thought to do it before (that's if nobody had, of course - don't really know much about SH). He sure had plenty of run-ins with the Ripper if all these previously undiscovered journals of Dr. Watson's are to be believed. Turned up a copy of this novelisation recently. Not, to the best of my knowledge a horror outing, but wasn't there something in the film about Holmes taking out a mechanical Loch Ness monster? Michael & Mollie Hardwick - The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (Mayflower, 1970) Blurb: SHERLOCK HOLMES - The UNPUBLISHED FACTS
Dramatic new revelations: Dr. Watson's secret memoirs unearthed.
"In my lifetime I have recorded more than sixty cases which demonstrated the singular gifts of my friend Sherlock Holmes, the best and wisest man that ever lived. But there were other adventures shared by us which, for reasons of discretion, I have decided to withhold from the public until a later date. They involve matters of a delicate and sometimes scandalous nature ..."
The Mirisch Production Company presents
Billy Wilder's THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES Starring Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely
Produced and directed by Billy Wilder.
Screenplay written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond.
Based on the characters created by Sir Arthur, Conan Doyle
Released through United Artists Entertainment from TransamericaCorporation. |
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Post by ripper on Sept 1, 2010 10:21:20 GMT
It's been many, many years since I saw the film or read the novelization, but I do believe that there is, indeed, a mechanical Loch Ness monster in Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, and I think that it was crewed by midgets if I remember correctly. There's a very funny scene at a Russian ballet that could upset some SH purists, but I think Wilder's film is closer to a parody than a pastiche.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Sept 1, 2010 10:35:47 GMT
It's unreliable memory time again, but I think the Wilder movie was meant to be four Holmes cases and they only had money / time to do two of them. I wonder if that novelisation includes the rest of the screenplay that was dropped?
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Post by dem bones on Sept 1, 2010 11:33:50 GMT
Between you, you gents have decided me to give the Hardwick's collaboration a go though, as ever, there's a waiting list. Lord P., if you remember that Michael Caine/ Lewis Collins/ Jayne Seymour Jack The Ripper TV mini-series, they filmed four alternate endings so the cast couldn't spill the beans as to who "really" was the Whitechapel Monster? In Mark Daniel's novelization of same, it provides each of the separate possible endings - it's worth a read just for that! Never has "unforgettably convincing" been so ... well, utterly unconvincing. |
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Post by ripper on Sept 1, 2010 13:02:47 GMT
My recollection is that the novelization is a straight treatment of the movie, though I do stand to be corrected on that point as it has been the best part of 30 years since I read it.
I had not realized that the Caine/Collins Jack the Ripper had been novelized and I will have to keep an eye out for it. I do remember being somewhat underwhelmed with the mini-series as presenting an accurate depiction of what happened in the autumn of 1888, though it was certainly entertaining. For me, if you're looking for a good and accurate dramatization then the Barlow and Watt Jack the Ripper series from 1973 takes some beating. Sadly, it does stray into the Royal Conspiracy theory in the last episode, but this was in the days before it had been comprehensively debunked. Still, it is a really good series and there was a tie-in book...by Euan Lloyd? called The Ripper File
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Post by dem bones on Sept 1, 2010 14:09:13 GMT
Here you go, Rip Elwyn Jones & John Lloyd - The Ripper File (Futura, 1975) It usually gets blamed for instigating the whole Stephen Knight The Final Solution saga, but provided you're not really convinced by the accepted "facts" and are prepared to accept the books on entertainment value alone, these are very much must-have Ripper "non-fiction". The Jones-Lloyd has passed through my hands (usual loaned out, never returned thing) but i still have The Final Solution and, however badly it's viewed by the Ripperologists, it's at least as convincing as some of their "incontrovertible" evidence. A brief browse at Casebook.Org tells me that The Ripper industry is still thriving - they're like cockroaches: even nuclear warfare wouldn't take them out! - which makes it even more difficult to figure which are the best/ worst books to reference. Do you have you any recommendations for us? |
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Post by ripper on Sept 1, 2010 16:05:25 GMT
Thanks for that, Dem, The Ripper File was the first JTR book I ever read. I still think that, for the most part, it is quite good at presenting the known facts of the murders themselves. A few other books that I would recommend to anyone wanting to get a basic grounding in the case are: Jack the Ripper: The Facts by Paul Begg, The Complete Jack the Ripper by Donald Rumbelow and The Jack the Ripper A-Z by Paul Begg, Martin Fido and Keith Skinner.
I have only read a couple of the suspect-oriented books, including the Knight book. As you say, Dem, the Royal conspiracy theory is equally as plausible as some of the suspects put forward in various books (Lewis Carol, Prince Albert Victor), and more entertaining than most.
Yeah, the JTR industry shows no signs of flagging, and the internet really gave it a shot in the arm. I think that the probable truth is that after 120 years we are very unlikely to obtain definitive proof of who was JTR, no matter how deeply you delve into the case (and some people delve very deeply indeed). Maybe JTR killed himself after the Kelly murder, maybe he emigrated, maybe he was arrested by the police for an unrelated crime...we are now very unlikely to ever know.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 1, 2010 18:39:14 GMT
i doubt the ripperologists will ever nail their man either - assuming there actually was just the one murderer and the killings were linked by more than just geography. one of approximately 1 million threads yet to take off on here is Jack The Ripper: 'non-fiction' - i think you might well be the man for the job! And here's a link to our JTR mini-covers gallery |
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