Baker Street Irregulars discussion

My own preference in pastiche (full disclosure - I've had some published) is one that persuades the reader that it was written by Conan Doyle. I've read a lot of pastiches that are very good stories, well written, but yet never came off "sounding" like Conan Doyle.

Lyndsay Faye- “The Whole Art of Detection” (short stories) & “Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson” (novel). Faye is the closest to Dr. Watson’s voice we have to today. Incredible.

August Derleth’s ‘Solar Pons’ stories.
Derleth channeled Doyle well. Crafting interesting problems that only a Consulting Detective & his Doctor Friend can solve.

Plus Neil Gaiman’s short stories “A Study in Emerald” & “The Case of Death and Honey” are just fun.

I haven’t read many pastiches yet, but my 2 favorites are The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin, and Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz.

I put a list of my favorites in the top ten discussion. But I lean toward ones that are set in the time period and that make me believe they could have been written by Conan Doyle. Mixing Holmes with real people like Freud, Oscar Wilde or Shaw are okay with me but I don't really like ones that take Holmes into the present day or have elements like space travel or paranormal.

I do agree about the necessity of the story reading as if Doyle could have written it. My preferences would be 1. Set in the correct time period and follow the lives of Holmes and Watson corresponding to the timeline of Doyle’s works. 2. I actually prefer not to read a random “extra” mystery, as Doyle did Holmes and Watson mysteries best, therefore - 3. I actually do prefer that the story is a “mashup,” i.e. Holmes and Watson meet fictional characters or historical people from the era, or 4. A spinoff of characters from the Holmes stories, provided they were interesting characters who realistically would have interesting things happen to them after or before encountering Holmes.

5. I have no interest in Solar Pons and characters who are sort of an imitation. Likewise, for films, I don’t consider the best Holmes ones to be something like They Might Be Giants, or a Holmes tv adaptation to be House. If we’re talking Holmes stories or Holmes tv/film, we should be talking about ones that have Holmes in it, or ones set in the Holmes universe. Not ones that were somewhat inspired by the stories. On their own they’re ok, but they’re not Holmes. House was a good show (at least for the first few years), although I wasn’t too impressed by They Might Be Giants, even though the writer of that wrote the play and screenplay for The Lion in Winter, which I loved.

Bruce wrote: "I haven’t read many pastiches yet, but my 2 favourites are The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin, and Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz."

Haven't you read the house of silk by Anthony Horowitz before Moriarty? That was my first and only Pastiche. I loved it and i have the Moriarty book as well and I plan to read it later this year.

I may read it someday. Honestly, it has little interest for me. Moriarty was a different concept, whereas House of Silk sounded like he was trying to do a new adventure without doing anything different. For me, Doyle did the best straight Holmes stories. I’m mostly interested in pastiches if they’re trying to do something different.

One that I particularly liked was in the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Part XII (full disclosure - I have a tale in that volume.) The anthology was made up of those "other cases" mentioned by Watson, and author Derrick Belanger wrote a story about the disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore (mentioned in The Problem of Thor Bridge). It is called "A Correspondence Concerning Mr. James Phillimore, written in epistolary format, and was very entertaining.

Beekeeper's Apprentice, hands down. There is another one I really loved, too, about an elderly Holmes but I can't remember what it was called...

Jenna wrote: "Beekeeper's Apprentice, hands down. There is another one I really loved, too, about an elderly Holmes but I can't remember what it was called..."

There was a book called "A Slight Trick of the Mind" that was made into the movie "Mr. Holmes" about an elderly Sherlock Holmes whose memory and mental powers are starting to fail.

There was also the book The Final Solution by Michael Chabon about an elderly Holmes, although Holmes’ name isn’t mentioned.

I don't know which one it was! Probably A Slight Trick of the Mind although I can't be sure. I will have to read them both again. Happily it has been long enough that I shall probably enjoy them just as much now as I did the first time I read them.

I'm currently reading the new Nicholas Meyer book Adventure of the Peculiar Protocals and it is excellent so far.

Probably Slight Trick of the Mind, as he’s actually referred to Sherlock in that one.

I could never get into "Beekeeper's Apprentice." Maybe it's just me, and I don't mind Holmes mentoring a clever young girl, but something about the Holmes/Mary relationship made me uncomfortable, especially in B.A. when she was only 15.
I know my reaction is not the majority but its interesting on another group we were just discussing "Rebecca", where a poor 21 year old girl becomes the 2nd wife of a wealthy 42 year old man. Most of the readers - and ! - were really uncomfortable with the relationship and the power disparity. Most of us said it hadn't been our reaction when we first read the book in our teens and 20s, but had a totally different reaction a couple decades later.

stop trying to overthink everything!

I think the comment about "Rebecca" is interesting because when one of my kids read it in college, even at that time she said that Maxim's line about missing his wife's "funny lost look that I loved" (this is after he confesses to being a murderer) made her queasy.
Of course, there is a Sherlock Holmes connection: one of the adaptations of "Rebecca" starred Jeremy Brett and Joanna David who co-starred with Brett in the Granada adaptation of the Holmes story "The Cardboard Box."

The Rebecca from the late 1970s was also the one where one of Jeremy Brett's co-stars was his ex wife Anna Massey - she was Mrs. Danvers.

I've got a lot of favorite pastiches, but I was loaned one of the latest of MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes stories and there was one To The Manor Bound that was a locked room mystery. A rich man who has some houseguests and servants is found in his locked bedroom with his skull crushed by a marble statue. The doors and windows are locked and bolted from the inside.
Clever solution.
Trying to think of what other canon stories are locked room mysteries. There was The Speckled Band and I think The Devil's Foot and at least 2 or 3 others. Have to look them up

Jenna wrote: "I don't know which one it was! Probably A Slight Trick of the Mind although I can't be sure. I will have to read them both again. Happily it has been long enough that I shall probably enjoy them ju..."

I enjoyed all of the Nicholas Meyer books; they felt very Holmesian to me. My favorite was probably The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson, M.D., which matches Sherlock with the Phantom of the Opera.

Tara wrote: "Jenna wrote: "I don't know which one it was! Probably A Slight Trick of the Mind although I can't be sure. I will have to read them both again. Happily it has been long enough that I shall probably..."

I read Meyer's "The Seven Percent Solution" and "The West End Horror." Didn't read "The Canary Trainer," but I was given another Holmes and the Phantom of the Opera book called "The Angel of the Opera", by Sam Siciliano. Haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

I am still going through some of the MX Publishing anthologies, and there was one called "The Adventure of the Chocolate Pot" by Hugh Ashton that did a very good job of sounding like Conan Doyle.

Rohit wrote: "Bruce wrote: "I haven’t read many pastiches yet, but my 2 favourites are The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin, and Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz."

Haven't you read the house of silk by ..."

my favoriet house of silk!

Bruce wrote: "I may read it someday. Honestly, it has little interest for me. Moriarty was a different concept, whereas House of Silk sounded like he was trying to do a new adventure without doing anything diffe..."

he did do it much better than doyle!

I finally opened "The Angel of the Opera" and didn't make it past the prologue. "Written by" a Dr. Vernet, a cousin of Sherlock Holmes, it opens by telling everything Watson got wrong, how the Holmes/Watson friendship had been exaggerated and how even Holmes' appearance was quite different than Watson represented it.
I don't mind revisited or re-imagined Holmes adventures, but I think there are certain essentials set down by Conan Doyle in terms of character that you can't waive without turning it into a different character altogether who just happens to have the name "Sherlock Holmes."

Patrick wrote: "Rohit wrote: "Bruce wrote: "I haven’t read many pastiches yet, but my 2 favourites are The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin, and Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz."

Haven't you read the hou..."
mine also!

I have heard mixed reviews about Bonnie MacBird's books, but my TBR pile is so high right now, I don't know if I can get to one soon. I did notice reading some reviews that the people who didn't like her books didn't like the way she portrayed Holmes and that she also slipped into Americanisms.
A note about British/American lingo. I was watching one of the Jeremy Brett episodes recently - think it was Speckled Band - and Holmes goes to wake Watson up because Helen Stoner shows up early in the morning. In the story, Holmes tells Watson that Mrs. Hudson "knocked him up" but in the episode, I think he uses the term "roused."

i have 3 of her books..i read so far unquite spirits and find it very good!

TRY THE HOUSE OF SILK BY ANTHONY HORWITZ...you do not realize it is not conan doyle it is the perfect sherlock holmes mystery!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Between the library fully opened, the good used book store and Kindling around, I came up with a few more pastiches that I think are worth mentioning - thought about starting another topic, but I'll post them here
The Adventure of the Old Russian Woman - Ian Charnock
A Full Account of Riccoletti and the Club Food - Ian Charnock
The Shadow of the Rat - David Stuart Davies
The Abernetty Mystery - Paul D. Gilbert
The Adventure of the Pawnbroker's Daughter - David Marcum
The Case of the Gustafsson Stone - June Thompson

And a few more that I thought adhered to "Doyle's rules" - sounded like authentic adventures:
The Adventure of the Glass Room - Philip J. Carrahar
The Three Favors - Katie Forsythe
The Case of the incumbent Invalid - Claire Griffen
The Final Toast - Stuart Kaminsky
To The Manor Bound - Jane Rubino

I might have mentioned a couple of these in other pastiche topics.

"I read Meyer's "The Seven Percent Solution" and "The West End Horror." Didn't read "The Canary Trainer,"

Although I love Nicholas Meyer (he inspired me to write my own Holmes pastiches) I was disappointed with "The Canary Trainer", mainly because it is narrated by Holmes himself, a cardinal mistake in my book.

i read also the 7percent solution and the west end horror

try the house of silk by anthony horowitz...narrated by watson and 100% doyle style!

i liked west end horror because oscar wilde was in it!

I read and reviewed a book called "The Spider's Web" where Holmes and Watson investigate a problem that involves several characters from Oscar Wilde's play. The plot itself I thought was a little tedious, but I thought that the author was one of the few who did a really good job of copying Conan Doyle's writing style - and for me that is what makes it a pastiche and not just a Sherlock Holmes story or novel.
There is also a book called "Sherlock Holmes and the Mysterious Friend of Oscar Wilde" that I think brings the two of them together.

ok it sounds intriguing!

The problem with putting my top ten (in another topic) is that now that I'm getting a hold of more of the MX anthologies, I'm reading other pastiches that I also like a lot and should put on a list of favorites - the latest are -
The case of the Ivy Covered Tomb - S. F. Bennet
The Trifling Matter of Mortimer Maberley - Geri Schear
The Adventure of the Tea-Stained Diamonds - Craig Stephen Copland
The Case of the Secret Samaritan - Jane Rubino
The Two Different Women - David Marcum

wow!!

I am going to have to demote all the picks on my lists, since I finished "Hidden Fires - A Holmes Before Baker Street Adventure" - this is now at the top of my list. A great adventure, sounds authentic to Doyle, and a clever origin story that explains a lot about influences and background that made Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes.
The story is taken from something Holmes said to Watson, that the most interesting woman he ever met was hanged for poisoning three children for the insurance money. I wasn't sure how I was going to react to what's a pretty off-putting statement, but the novel did take me by surprise and reminded me of what Holmes said about not going for the big picture but concentrating on details.
The authors is on this forum and another forum I"m on. For some reason Good Reads hasn't made the book searchable yet (?) so I can't review it but I will when they get up to speed.
Amazon link.
https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Fires-H...

Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye is my favorite pastiche of all time - it's so juicy and fun! I didn't like her short story collections tho...they felt very fanfictiony to me.

I get what you're saying about "fan fictiony" - sometimes I think. authors, especially the ones that are pretty well known, just knock off short story collections to keep something in print between novels. Some of my favorite Holmes short stories from the past few years have been from authors who might not be well known but whose writing sounds more like Conan Doyle.

So once again I have to reshuffle my favorite picks. Author Jane Rubino does a good job with pastiches and I have liked the ones I read, but her latest which is a sequel to Charles Augustus Milverton - A Touch of the Dramatic - has it all. Drama, pathos and some laughs. It's in the latest MX anthology.

the house of silk by anthony horowitz

I don't know if we're meant to post stuff like this, but I have no connection to the company:
PSBooks.co.uk have a huge hardback collection of Holmes pastiches called Sherlock, edited by Otto Penzler. The authors range from PG Wodehouse to Stephen King, and include Arthur Conan Doyle (?). I've ordered one for myself. I just wanted to let other people know that it's available.

One of the best pastiche authors to date has been Lyndsey Faye, all 3 titles are short stories and make for satisfying reads. "Observations by Gaslight: Stories from the World of Sherlock Holmes", "The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes" and "Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson".

@ Old Scot - I know that Otto Penzler was a big Holmes fan - I think he edited and compiled a few Holmes anthologies, but thought he had his own house called Mysterious Press and had a book shop in NYC devoted to mystery.
A while back I reviewed (didn't like) an anthology called "A Study in Sherlock" (this was Poisoned Pen Press, not Mysterious) - very disappointing because some big name authors did stories that only had a passing reference to Holmes - some of them seemed to really stretch for a Holmes connection. I've liked the MX anthologies mostly because they stick to Conan Doyle's Holmes "universe."