Book Review

I just finished Murder in Baker Street: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes. The selection is unusual for me. I write mysteries…my favorite character, Hagitha, is a detective. But I don’t read them much unless they have a fantasy component. However, I’m a sucker when it comes to Sherlock Holmes, probably because the famous detective reminds me of my dad in the logical way he communicates and solves puzzles.

A Sherlock Holmes story is relaxing to me. Maybe because I know how they all end. But even if I didn’t, the pace is deliberate. Dense and rarely scary, they are not what I would call exhilarating. The mystery is unraveled slowly. The character of Sherlock is hardly ever surprising. Neither is Watson.

All of this makes it harder to duplicate. You can’t disguise you are not Sir Conan Doyle by writing at a fast pace, using spicy language, or constructing overly emotional conversations. Holmes is Holmes. Watson is Watson.

So why would an editor ask a group of well-known mystery writers to compose stories using Sherlock Holmes? Perhaps for the challenge, perhaps for the built in audience. I guess I’m the second. I enjoyed the book, the stories were well crafted, but I was distracted by “mistakes” either in a generous interpretation of the characters, or simply word usage. They just were not about my Sherlock.

But then I read the story A Hanson for Mr. Holmes by Gillian Linscott. (A hanson is a horse drawn cab). Instead of Watson narrating as he always does, the author had a cabbie narrate.

This device worked perfectly. It wasn’t Watson’s voice, it wasn’t Watson’s interpretation of Homes, it was a cabbie’s, and a not so pure cabbie at that. The story was hilarious, and the best of the bunch, in my opinion.

I don’t mind classic stories messed with as long as the interpretation is good. “Good,” I realize, is in the eye of the beholder. For me, it means true enough to the original to feel the roots, but different enough for me not to frown at a counterfeit. Tricky.