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Post by ripper on Feb 15, 2020 15:57:14 GMT
In another of Donald Thomas's Holmes collections, The Execution of Sherlock Holmes, is a story titled The Phantom Maid. Holmes and Watson take the case of a young girl dismissed from her job as a maid in a hotel when someone witnesses her going into a gentleman guest's room late at night, only the girl and her mother have numerous witnesses of their own that she was at home at the time the 'phantom' maid was seen. The gentleman who apparently received the nocturnal visit was Edmund Gurney, real life psychic investigator in the early days of the Society for Psychical Research, only as he was passed out due to his addiction to chloroform, he cannot say if the maid entered his room or not. We also get to meet a couple of variety stage psychics who have a major part in the story. Quite enjoyable as a Holmes tale. Donald Thomas has a habit of putting Holmes into real life events or into the plots of existing stories, The Ghosts of Bly being a good example of the latter. His stories also tend to be rather long, so a typical collection would be of 5 or so tales. If you like your Sherlock mixing it with historical characters and situations, then I would recommend checking out some of the author's work.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Aug 11, 2020 8:48:04 GMT
For some reason, Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson (Simon & Schuster, 2009) by Lyndsay Faye has not seen British publication. The publisher's description tells it all: "From the gritty streets of nineteenth century London, the loyal and courageous Dr. Watson offers a tale unearthed after generations of lore: the harrowing story of Sherlock Holmes's attempt to hunt down Jack the Ripper. As England's greatest specialist in criminal detection, Sherlock Holmes is unwavering in his quest to capture the killer responsible for terrifying London's East End. He hires an 'unfortunate' known as Mary Ann Monk, the friend of a fellow streetwalker who was one of the Ripper's earliest victims; and he relies heavily on the steadfast and devoted Dr. John H. Watson. When Holmes himself is wounded in Whitechapel during an attempt to catch the savage monster, the popular press launches an investigation of its own, questioning the great detective's role in the very crimes he is so fervently struggling to prevent. Stripped of his credibility, Holmes is left with no choice but to break every rule in the desperate race to find the madman known as 'the Knife' before it is too late. A masterly re-creation of history's most diabolical villain, Lyndsay Faye's debut brings unparalleled authenticity to the atmosphere of Whitechapel and London in the fledgling days of tabloid journalism and recalls the ideals evinced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most beloved and world-renowned characters. Jack the Ripper's identity, still hotly debated around the world more than a century after his crimes were committed, remains a mystery ripe for speculation. Dust and Shadow explores the terrifying prospect of tracking a serial killer without the advantage of modern forensics, and the result is a lightning-paced novel brimming with historical detail that will keep you on the edge of your seat." While it is overlong, it is the best new Holmes novel I have read in years. It is in print in paperback. I've just re-read DUST AND SHADOWS. It's massively overlong thus has no narrative grip. I was even more disappointed by THE BREATH OF GOD by Guy Adams published in 2011. Has anyone read any good new Sherlock Holmes novels written in the last ten years or so?
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 11, 2020 9:12:43 GMT
For some reason, Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson (Simon & Schuster, 2009) by Lyndsay Faye has not seen British publication. The publisher's description tells it all: "From the gritty streets of nineteenth century London, the loyal and courageous Dr. Watson offers a tale unearthed after generations of lore: the harrowing story of Sherlock Holmes's attempt to hunt down Jack the Ripper. As England's greatest specialist in criminal detection, Sherlock Holmes is unwavering in his quest to capture the killer responsible for terrifying London's East End. He hires an 'unfortunate' known as Mary Ann Monk, the friend of a fellow streetwalker who was one of the Ripper's earliest victims; and he relies heavily on the steadfast and devoted Dr. John H. Watson. When Holmes himself is wounded in Whitechapel during an attempt to catch the savage monster, the popular press launches an investigation of its own, questioning the great detective's role in the very crimes he is so fervently struggling to prevent. Stripped of his credibility, Holmes is left with no choice but to break every rule in the desperate race to find the madman known as 'the Knife' before it is too late. A masterly re-creation of history's most diabolical villain, Lyndsay Faye's debut brings unparalleled authenticity to the atmosphere of Whitechapel and London in the fledgling days of tabloid journalism and recalls the ideals evinced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most beloved and world-renowned characters. Jack the Ripper's identity, still hotly debated around the world more than a century after his crimes were committed, remains a mystery ripe for speculation. Dust and Shadow explores the terrifying prospect of tracking a serial killer without the advantage of modern forensics, and the result is a lightning-paced novel brimming with historical detail that will keep you on the edge of your seat." While it is overlong, it is the best new Holmes novel I have read in years. It is in print in paperback. I've just re-read DUST AND SHADOWS. It's massively overlong thus has no narrative grip. I was even more disappointed by THE BREATH OF GOD by Guy Adams published in 2011. Has anyone read any good new Sherlock Holmes novels written in the last ten years or so? The ones by Anthony Horowitz are reasonably entertaining.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Aug 11, 2020 12:40:07 GMT
I've just re-read DUST AND SHADOWS. It's massively overlong thus has no narrative grip. I was even more disappointed by THE BREATH OF GOD by Guy Adams published in 2011. Has anyone read any good new Sherlock Holmes novels written in the last ten years or so? The ones by Anthony Horowitz are reasonably entertaining. I had thought about the Horowitz ones, but I'm afraid I found his first to be very dull. I couldn't even finish his second. While I'm here, apart from "Romancing the Holmes: Some thoughts on Sherlock Holmes pastiche" by Roger Johnson in THE MUSGRAVE PAPERS # 11 (1998), does anyone know about any good criticism of such pastiche?
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Post by Michael Connolly on Aug 14, 2020 8:22:51 GMT
Daniel, I've not read anything by Saberhagen. I liked Estleman's Holmes-Dracula book and have a copy of his Dr Jekyll and Mr Holmes kicking around in my "to be read" pile. Stephen Seitz wrote Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula, but I don't know anything about it. I'm interested in your comments on The Tangled Skein as I've seen mixed reviews on it. It's available with David Stuart Davies' Shadow of the Rat in a single volume. James, I've heard of the Dibdin book and its revelations, but have not read it as yet. I thought it might stray too far from the Conan Doyle path for my tastes. Have you read a book by Bernard Schaffer called Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes? It's supposed to be rather controversial and graphic. I have read SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE PLAGUE OF DRACULA (2006). It's bleeding awful. The style is not even close to Doyle and Holmes "explains" supernatural events etc as trickery, but with no explanation at all! I'm currently re-reading Dibdin's THE LAST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY. It's very sharply written (unlike the very slack DUST AND SHADOW) and remains the best version of Holmes and Jack the Ripper. Fred Saberhagen's THE HOLMES-DRACULA FILE is the second best version of that theme, with Estleman's being the best (even if only by default)
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Post by Michael Connolly on Aug 14, 2020 13:13:29 GMT
Daniel, I've not read anything by Saberhagen. I liked Estleman's Holmes-Dracula book and have a copy of his Dr Jekyll and Mr Holmes kicking around in my "to be read" pile. Stephen Seitz wrote Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula, but I don't know anything about it. I'm interested in your comments on The Tangled Skein as I've seen mixed reviews on it. It's available with David Stuart Davies' Shadow of the Rat in a single volume. James, I've heard of the Dibdin book and its revelations, but have not read it as yet. I thought it might stray too far from the Conan Doyle path for my tastes. Have you read a book by Bernard Schaffer called Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes? It's supposed to be rather controversial and graphic. I have read SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE PLAGUE OF DRACULA (2006). It's bleeding awful. The style is not even close to Doyle and Holmes "explains" supernatural events etc as trickery, but with no explanation at all! I'm currently re-reading Dibdin's THE LAST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY. It's very sharply written (unlike the very slack DUST AND SHADOW) and remains the best version of Holmes and Jack the Ripper. Fred Saberhagen's THE HOLMES-DRACULA FILE is the second best version of that theme, with Estleman's being the best (even if only by default) This has just occurred to me. I know Roger Johnson the same way I know Rosemary Pardoe, i.e., by written word only. Exactly thirty years ago I asked Roger some very naive questions. Among other things he told me that THE TANGLED SKEIN was passed over by New English Library in favour of SHERLOCK HOLMES VS DRACULA. I think that this was the right choice because, among other reasons, SHVD(!), though written by an American, captures Doyle's style better than THE TANGLED SKEIN written by an English writer.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 14, 2020 16:59:25 GMT
A long time ago there was "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Martin Greenberg and Carol-Lynn Rössel-Waugh. From 1987 it had mostly then popular crime fiction writers producing new Holmes stories. John Lutz, Stuart Kaminsky, Michael Harrison, Edward Hoch, Stephen King, Loren Estleman and others. Some are hackwork, some are nice.
I never read one of Davies' Holmes novels, but the anthology The Games afoot had also a few nice stories.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 14, 2020 18:39:55 GMT
I never read one of Davies' Holmes novels I tried! I gave up very quickly.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Aug 14, 2020 19:16:11 GMT
A long time ago there was "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Martin Greenberg and Carol-Lynn Rössel-Waugh. From 1987 it had mostly then popular crime fiction writers producing new Holmes stories. John Lutz, Stuart Kaminsky, Michael Harrison, Edward Hoch, Stephen King, Loren Estleman and others. Some are hackwork, some are nice. I never read one of Davies' Holmes novels, but the anthology The Games afoot had also a few nice stories. The Stephen King story is dreadful. If anyone else had written it, it wouldn't have been published. As for David Stuart Davies, THE TANGLED SKEIN is his only Sherlock Holmes novel that I liked. I haven't bothered with his more recent ones.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 16, 2020 12:02:43 GMT
A long time ago there was "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Martin Greenberg and Carol-Lynn Rössel-Waugh. From 1987 it had mostly then popular crime fiction writers producing new Holmes stories. John Lutz, Stuart Kaminsky, Michael Harrison, Edward Hoch, Stephen King, Loren Estleman and others. Some are hackwork, some are nice. I never read one of Davies' Holmes novels, but the anthology The Games afoot had also a few nice stories. The Stephen King story is dreadful. If anyone else had written it, it wouldn't have been published. As for David Stuart Davies, THE TANGLED SKEIN is his only Sherlock Holmes novel that I liked. I haven't bothered with his more recent ones. You are right. I re-read the King yesterday. Absolutely ridicoulus. Okay, Holmes never was above to play judge and jury, but not under these circumstances. Ever read Sherlock Holmes and the Hellbirds by Mitchelson and Utechin? I have this for ages, never read it. It was published in 1976 originally. It is about the hunt for a German spy in 1914 and a murder. As far as I gathered, it was published before the deluge of Holmes stories and novels. This German translation - for a imprint which only was avaiable in supermarkets if I remember correctly - has surprisingly the same cover as the original.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Aug 16, 2020 19:58:26 GMT
The Stephen King story is dreadful. If anyone else had written it, it wouldn't have been published. As for David Stuart Davies, THE TANGLED SKEIN is his only Sherlock Holmes novel that I liked. I haven't bothered with his more recent ones. You are right. I re-read the King yesterday. Absolutely ridicoulus. Okay, Holmes never was above to play judge and jury, but not under these circumstances. Ever read Sherlock Holmes and the Hellbirds by Mitchelson and Utechin? I have this for ages, never read it. It was published in 1976 originally. It is about the hunt for a German spy in 1914 and a murder. As far as I gathered, it was published before the deluge of Holmes stories and novels. This German translation - for a imprint which only was avaiable in supermarkets if I remember correctly - has surprisingly the same cover as the original. All I can remember about HELLBIRDS and the same authors' other Holmes novel THE EARTHQUAKE MACHINE is that both books are very pulpy with too many characters from Doyle's original stories and too many real-life historical characters appearing. The best website for information on these and other such novels and stories is called School and Holmes.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 25, 2020 13:06:14 GMT
Great stuff, Lurkio. Forgotten all about The Tangled Skein, which have been meaning to get stuck into since nabbing a copy about a century back. David Stuart Davies - The Tangled Skein (Wordsworth, 2006) Blurb: It is the autumn of 1888. Following the successful conclusion of the investigation into the affair of the Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson have returned from Dartmoor, little realising that fate will see them back in Devon before the year is out.
Holmes receives a potentially lethal package, the first strand in the tangled skein which he will need to unravel before this adventure is resolved.
A threat to Holmes's life, murders on Hampstead Heath, and a strange phantom lady lead Holmes and Watson into the most dangerous investigation they have ever undertaken - an encounter which brings them face to face with evil itself, embodied in Count Dracula, the Lord of the Undead.That's not Dracula on the cover. That's Professor Moriarty as portrayed by Gustav Von Seyffertitz (I'm not making this up) in the 1922 film Sherlock Holmes, also known as Moriarty. And here he is, with John Barrymore as Holmes.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 3, 2020 13:53:13 GMT
Just out (from the library, fortunately): James Lovegrove, Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of the Stapletons (Titan Books). New York Times bestselling author James Lovegrove's continues the story of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles, as five years later, another monstrous creature stalks across Dartmoor...
1894. The monstrous Hound of the Baskervilles has been dead for five years, along with its no less monstrous owner, the naturalist Jack Stapleton. Sir Henry Baskerville is living contentedly at Baskerville Hall with his new wife Audrey and their three-year-old son Harry.
Until, that is, Audrey's lifeless body is found on the moors, drained of blood. It would appear some fiendish creature is once more at large on Dartmoor and has, like its predecessor, targeted the unfortunate Baskerville family. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are summoned to Sir Henry's aid, and our heroes must face a marauding beast that is the very stuff of nightmares. It seems that Stapleton may not have perished in the Great Grimpen Mire after all, as Holmes believed, and is hell-bent on revenge...While readable it's a damn silly book so far. It's no spoiler to say that the Beast is a man-sized vampiric moth. And I think I've spotted the culprit on their first appearance.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 3, 2020 15:39:17 GMT
Michael, have you ever seen a rather silly 1967 horror film starring Peter Cushing and Wanda Ventham, The Blood Beast Terror aka Blood Beast from Hell aka Vampire Deathshead? It's routinely trashed by critics and horror fans (and I seem to recall that Peter Cushing once described it as the worst film he ever made--I personally think that is debatable). But I finally got to see it a couple of years ago and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. There are scenes in the later part of the film where Cushing is staying at a Victorian bed and breakfast with his daughter, and he often has to struggle not to let the wallpaper and Victoriana in the front parlor steal every scene.
Sounds as if the author of this Holmes dish-up saw the film and decided to spin some fool's gold out of discarded hay.
cheers, H.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 3, 2020 15:59:09 GMT
Michael, have you ever seen a rather silly 1967 horror film starring Peter Cushing and Wanda Ventham, The Blood Beast Terror aka Blood Beast from Hell aka Vampire Deathshead? It's routinely trashed by critics and horror fans (and I seem to recall that Peter Cushing once described it as the worst film he ever made--I personally think that is debatable). But I finally got to see it a couple of years ago and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. There are scenes in the later part of the film where Cushing is staying at a Victorian bed and breakfast with his daughter, and he often has to struggle not to let the wallpaper and Victoriana in the front parlor steal every scene. Sounds as if the author of this Holmes dish-up saw the film and decided to spin some fool's gold out of discarded hay. cheers, H. Also my first thought. The silly und thoroughly unconvincing killer moth from this movie.
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