A Study in Sherlock

I have long been a fan of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and jumped at the chance to see what a few authors, whose other books I have read and enjoyed, could do with a Holmesian type story. I wasn't disappointed in the least. Alan Bradley of Flavia de Luce fame, Charles Todd (whose Insp. Ian Rutledge is now a new favourite)and Lee Child - wonderful stories. I also discovered some new authors whose books I will now add to my never-ending To Read list...
Thank you to Laurie. R. King and Leslie S. Klinger for asking these authors for their Holmes' stories - a fabulous read!

It's hard to imagine a better collection of Holmes inspired stories, running the gamut from "lost" stories from Holmes' career, reimaginings of his cases in other times and places, or investigations by those inspired by the detective and even tales of Holmes fans and one featuring Conan Doyle himself. In fact Holmes appears in only five of the fifteen stories, and in one of those (a comic about the author's inability to complete a Holmes short story) he is barely a cameo - but this is the book's strength. Of the Holmes stories only one (The Startling Events in the Electrified City) imitates the Watsonian style of the originals, and while it is by no means a failure it feels out of place among the more inventive interpretations around show more it. That said, there's not really a dud in the list, and the less successful ones probably seem worse than they are amongst the gems.

Of the authors included only one was familiar to me, Neil Gaiman, and his tale - like his award-winning Holmes and Cthulhu mash up "A Study in Emerald" - shows a love and understanding of the character alongside a willingness to risk taking him in a new direction. It works splendidly. Other characters who take on the mantle of Holmes - however briefly or obliquely - are also largely successful. Sme of them are probably familiar to crime readers, but since Holmes is more or less the only crime I've read, they were all new to me.

I was a little surprised at the American focus of the novel; a large part of my (and I suspect many others') attraction to aholmes is the Victorian world he inhabits, but here most of the non-Holmes stories are set in America, and one or two set in the UK onvolve Americans too. This wasn't much of a barrier though because the stories are so good, though the cultural references sometimes had me wondering what happened to all the English Sherlockians who surely would have loved a stab at this format.

All in all, I loved it. It's inspired me to return to the canon for the first time in a while, too. show less

This was an excellent collection of modern author's tributes to Holmes. I've recently read the entire Holmes canon and I enjoyed reading this collection. Several stories either spin off of or occur in tandem with actual cases. The ones with a modern setting made me think of the BBC Sherlock series. I especially enjoyed the story by Neil Gaiman, but I did not care for the "Unwritten Short Story," with it's comic book style and seeming lack of all respect for Holmes. Still overall a very fun and engaging collection, I'd recommend it for all Holmes fans.

Although I am generally terribly wary of Holmes tribute fiction (fearing to see, perhaps, too clear a reflection of my own grasping fangirlness) I was introduced to King's Mary Russell series, and her name was enough to get me very interested in this collection of Holmes-inspired short stories.

Of course, they're up and down. There are some standouts, like As to "An Exact Knowledge of London" by Tony Broadbent, which (though a trifle slow in spots) shows imagination and a great affection for the Holmes canon and its many screen interpretations. Neil Gaiman's contribution was also grand. I love the way some of these stories addressed our need for Holmes to live on.

Some have something of a genuine Doylian air like The Startling Events in show more the Electrified City by Thomas Perry which, despite its steampunk name and American setting, is a straightforward (and excellent) Holmes story. The Eyak Interpreter is an marvellous updating of a canon story which resituates it in an Aboriginal community of Alaska, and does so with some flair. I was groaning when I saw the format (a boy's blog posts), but I shouldn't have worried.

Others aren't as good - some are merely dull (The Adventure of the Purloined Paget, a manor-house mystery set among Holmesian collectors), but just one is actively terrible: Cotterill's maundering comic The Mysterious Case of the Unwritten Short Story which demonstrates active boredom with Holmes, Doyle, and mysteries. The art doesn't redeem it.

I enjoyed the King/Klinger collaboration which ends the volume, but I had read it before, when it was released as an e-book along with King's [Beekeeping for Beginners] in the fall of 2011.

I haven't read many such collections, but I can happily recommend this one to fans of Holmes; just feel free to skip down a bit if a story isn't working for you. show less

A new collection of Sherlock Holmes-inspired short stories edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger, A Study in Sherlock (Bantam, 2011) makes for terrific reading. While as with most collections (and most pastiches), some are better than others, on the whole the pieces in this volume are of very high quality.

The stories vary widely, ranging from retellings of canonical Holmes tales from different perspectives, entirely new adventures featuring Holmes and Watson (including one in which he assists in the assassination of President McKinley), modern-day mysteries inspired by Holmes (or Holmesiana), and even a story from the perspective of Mrs. Hudson, Holmes' landlady at 221B Baker Street.

I particularly liked Alan Bradley's "You'd show more Better Go In Disguise," Tony Broadbent's "As to 'An Exact Knowledge of London'," Lee Child's "The Bone-headed League," Neil Gaiman's "The Case of Death and Honey," and Charles Todd's "The Case that Holmes Lost."

A great book to spend a nice autumn weekend with, I found. It'll remind you of all the best parts of the Holmes stories, and make you want to read and enjoy them all over again.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2011/11/book-review-study-in-sherlock.html show less

I went with high expectations for this book, and except for one or two stories, it was mostly disappointing. Maybe it was just not the book for me; I noticed a good number of people here in GoodReads gave it positive reviews. However, for me, it is a book "inspired by the canon," and apparently that was not saying much. The great detective is mostly peripheral in this collection of stories about Sherlockiana geeks, collectors, and other folks with an interest in Sherlock Holmes but otherwise not related to the detective. This was basically like getting a book that claims to be inspired by Star Trek canon, only to find it is just so-so stories about the Trekkies you meet at conventions who happen to know every single detail of the show more episodes in the original series, and use that knowledge to solve mysteries. Just because one or two can deduce, as another reviewer mentioned, it is not the deductive art of Sherlock Holmes. That was the main thing that was missing. As I mentioned, there was one or two good entertaining stories here, but overall, the anthology is hit and miss. I will give it credit for being something different, but personally, not something terribly impressive in terms of substance.

I will mention that I have read various anthologies of Sherlock Holmes stories, in addition to having read the whole original canon. If you want something along the lines of Conan Doyle's work, something that truly captures the essence and pays good tribute to the great detective, pick up one of those other anthologies, or just go back the original. In fact, after reading this book, I felt the urge to go back and read Conan Doyle's work, just to remind myself how good that is. For now, if asked for what is a good anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories, I would recommend Shadows Over Baker Street, a nice set of stories where the great detective is tossed in the world of H.P. Lovecraft. That is worth reading. This, in my estimation, not so much. As I said, there are one or two stories in it, including one by Neil Gaiman, but the rest are pretty forgettable.

However, if you enjoy light mysteries with amateur sleuths, anything from Murder, She Wrote to the Mary Russell series (one of this books editors is the author of that series), you just might like this book. Just because I did not enjoy it does not mean you might not either. show less

These aren't straight pastiches, but I love that about it. But it has the same problem that plagues short story collections; some stories you like, some stories you don't. I like Neil Gaiman's (and that story actually was a pretty straightforward pastiche, if a little... Neil Gaiman-y), and the collection did introduce me to some mystery writers I have heard about but haven't read yet (like Alan Bradley, Dana Stabenow, and Jacqueline Winspear) who did pretty decent stories. The one story that I hated was the comic by Colin Cotterill, but only because it wasn't my sense of humor at all. What is my sense of humor? I have been told that I'm "the funny one" and also that I don't have a sense of humor at all. HAHAHA!!!