What to read after Sherlock Holmes?

[Ransom]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the only serious contender to the Sherlock stories. Namely--"Father Brown." Actually, most people think Chesterton 1-up'd Doyle considerably. If you search these forums, you can find a very well done Father Brown omnibus.

[ScalyFreak]

I almost forgot... all of Ellis Peters' novels about Brother Cadfael (formerly a crusader, now a monk in 12th century England, near the Welsh border) are all about puzzles and thinking and filled with amazing characters. Especially Cadfael himself.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by purple_fishy

Thanks for the two suggestions. Are they Sherlock Holmes "spinoffs" or continuations? I know there is a huge movement of Austen spinoffs and sequels, I figure there might be some for Sherlock Holmes as well. Though they never really measure up to the golden standard, at least none of the Austen continuations do...

Exploits of Sherlock Holmes and The New Exploits of Sherlock Holmes. Both of these books were written by Adrian, who was Arthur's son, with the help of John Dickson Carr, a notable mystery novelist himself, under that name, and also Carter Dickson.

While I'm at it, there are the Solar Pons mysteries, by August Derleth, probably the best pastiche series spinning off of Holmes.

Check out The Game is Afoot, edited by Marvin Kaye.

And then there are the spinoffs written with Mycroft Holmes as the protagonist, and Lestrade, and even Moriarity. A little googling, or searching around on Amazon, will pop these up.

[purple_fishy]

Originally Posted by Ransom

I can't believe no one has mentioned the only serious contender to the Sherlock stories. Namely--"Father Brown." Actually, most people think Chesterton 1-up'd Doyle considerably. If you search these forums, you can find a very well done Father Brown omnibus.

It's funny you said that, I just found the Father Brown books in GoodReads so I had it in my mind to go search MR for them. I am going to add it to my TBR list. BTW, what is an omnibus? Is that a set of complete works?

[russellmz00]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Exploits of Sherlock Holmes and The New Exploits of Sherlock Holmes. Both of these books were written by Adrian, who was Arthur's son, with the help of John Dickson Carr, a notable mystery novelist himself, under that name, and also Carter Dickson.

are these different books? the story lists in the amazon links are the same.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by anjirlly

My favorite continuation of Sherlock Holmes is the series by Laurie R. King. It starts with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. It envisions Holmes as a bored retiree who sets off on new adventures with a brilliant, teenaged American who moves to England after losing both parents. There is some violence, so I wouldn't characterize it as a cozy.

I'll also recommend this series... I nearly posted about it earlier, but as mentioned, there is some violence. However, said violence is not on the hugely, graphical, total gore side. But it is too much to be called a cozy. However, the books are really good and entertaining! The entire series is available as ebook too.

I also vote for Brother Cadfael and Lord Peter Wimsey.

There's bunches more spinoffs on Sherlock, but my brain can't remember 'em all, since I read a lot of them when I was much younger. One I read more recently and enjoyed was Michael Chabon's "The Final Solution". Not sure that is available in ebook though.

Father Brown and Judge Dee are in my TBR list! They sound like winners from some of the comments I've seen here and elsewhere.

[WT Sharpe]

Speaking of going outside the Conan Doyle books for more Holmes:

One of my favorites is The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer. In this book, which somewhat turns the entire series on its head, Watson, at the request of Professor Moriarty, conspires to trick his friend into going to Vienna to visit Sigmund Freud to be cured of his cocaine addiction and his unhealthy delusional obsession that a mild-mannered school teacher is somehow the greatest criminal mastermind London has ever seen.

Another is A Study in Terror - Ellery Queen and Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper by Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee) and Paul W. Fairman, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes bits. This story centers on an unpublished manuscript by Dr. Watson that fell into the hands of Ellery Queen detailing how Holmes attempted to solve the mystery of Jack the Ripper. A wonderful book, and Mr. Fairman does an excellent job of recreating Doyle's style.

I don't know if either are available as ebooks, but if not, your local library may have them in print versions.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by purple_fishy

It's funny you said that, I just found the Father Brown books in GoodReads so I had it in my mind to go search MR for them. I am going to add it to my TBR list. BTW, what is an omnibus? Is that a set of complete works?

I would second the recommendation of reading the Father Brown series. At their best, they are very fine and would be classed as quality literature.
An Omnibus is any type of volume which collects stories or collections of stories which are usually published independently. An omnibus volume is not necessarily a complete collection unless the title specifically makes the claim to be such. The Father Brown Omnibus collections I have seen as eBooks so far include the stories published in the first two collections: The Innocence of Father Brown and and The Wisdom of Father Brown. I might add that those two have the highest consistency of quality in the series containing some brilliant stories and are well worth having.

Update

I've just checked out the Omnibus edition mentioned by Ransom, and it is a very good one indeed, containing all five of the Father Brown volumes. You couldn't do better.

[Ransom]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I've just checked out the Omnibus edition mentioned by Ransom, and it is a very good one indeed, containing all five of the Father Brown volumes. You couldn't do better.

Well, you could do a little better. There were three Father Brown stories that were only published in magazines and weren't part of the 5-volume collections. If you get this particular omnibus, it contains one of those stories as an add-on. So this is the best omnibus you can get right now. But I hope some day to scan those other two stories (I have them--just haven't gotten around to it yet), and then put out a REALLY complete Father Brown omnibus of my own.

[BenG]

Loren Estleman has a couple of Sherlock Holmes pastiches: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes and Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula.

For detective stories written by Conan Doyle's contemporaries try Ernest Bramah's Max Carrados stories about a blind detective, R. Austin Freeman's Dr. Thorndyke, William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the ghost finder, or Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly of Scotland Yard.

[BenG]

Also there was a set of books edited by Hugh Greene with called The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. It's not available as an ebook and I'm not sure if they are even still in print. There was a BBC series based on the anthology.
The books included The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Cosmopolitan Crimes - Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by russellmz00

are these different books? the story lists in the amazon links are the same.

Might be the same book.

My copy is the Exploits, IIRC, not the "New" Exploits. But it might be the result of different editions.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Speaking of going outside the Conan Doyle books for more Holmes:

One of my favorites is The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer. In this book, which somewhat turns the entire series on its head, Watson, at the request of Professor Moriarty, conspires to trick his friend into going to Vienna to visit Sigmund Freud to be cured of his cocaine addiction and his unhealthy delusional obsession that a mild-mannered school teacher is somehow the greatest criminal mastermind London has ever seen.

oh, that sounds promising!

still, I'm yet to meet famed Moriarty even in plain Sherlockian books so far...

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

still, I'm yet to meet famed Moriarty even in plain Sherlockian books so far...

That's the whole point, you know. Moriarty himself is... well, you don't expect the Godfather to get his own hands dirty, now do you?

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

That's the whole point, you know. Moriarty himself is... well, you don't expect the Godfather to get his own hands dirty, now do you?

perhaps, but what I meant is that I'm yet to read most of Holmes large body of work... I'm still about half through "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"...