12-02-2022, 11:04 AM | #1 |
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Favorite Sherlock Holmes Pastiches
When I was in junior high and high school, I read most of the Sherlock Holmes "canon" -- that is, the official stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Then, I discovered Sherlock Holmes pastiches -- stories about Holmes written by other people.
Everything from simple murder mysteries to Sherlock Holmes meeting Dracula. This was about the time when The Seven-Per-Cent Solution came out, giving an entirely new twist on Moriarity. Not to mention the controversial The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin. The other day, I saw some recent pastiches in the bookstore and on Amazon, and I thought about getting into them again. So I wondered which ones I should venture into. (I did consider the books of Carole Nelson Douglas and Laurie R. King. Plus newer books by James Lovegrove, who seems to bring SF and horror into the mix.) I've noticed that Sherlock Holmes pastiches are easier to find nowadays. Yet I haven't seen anything that seems ... truly controversial? Mind-shattering? Is there anything more recent that is as controversial as The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and The Last Sherlock Holmes Story were in their day? Does anyone still write "How Dare He Do That to Holmes?!" books? Edited to Add: If you want more of my meandering rambles about pastiches, check out my Medium link as I just published an article about my experience trying to write one in high school. |
12-02-2022, 12:03 PM | #2 |
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I liked Katherine Addison: "The Angel of the Crows" a lot. It's a supernatural retelling, where various supernatural beings are known to exist, and the Lancet has articles about the comparative pathology of werewolf bites and vampire bites. The events are mostly close to the originals (so no big surprises there when you've read the originals), but how the world works is a puzzle that unfolds gradually.
I also liked "A Study in Honor" by Claire O'Dell, but in that book, I felt the Sherlock Holmes inspiration didn't really fit, and the book would have worked better on its own terms if the protagonists hadn't been named Holmes and Watson. |
12-03-2022, 02:39 AM | #3 |
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Laurie R. King: not for me. What she writes is not even Sherlock Holmes pastiches, but about her own original character (a huge Mary Sue), with Sherlock fawning admiringly around. Not badly written, but I just can't.
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12-03-2022, 03:37 AM | #4 |
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This was my biggest issue with the series too, even before she became L1 fluent in Arabic & Hindi in a couple of weeks - then proceeded to make howlers that had an Indian author I shared them with in stitches.
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12-03-2022, 09:34 AM | #5 |
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For some reason, I haven't been able to get into the Laurie R. King books yet. I've read that her main character is very much a Mary Sue. But sometimes, I like a Mary Sue. (OTOH sometimes, I want to slip sleeping pills into the Mary Sue's tea...)
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12-03-2022, 10:12 AM | #6 |
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Mine would have to be Fred Saberhagen's delightful _The Holmes-Dracula File_ (sequel to _The Dracula Tapes_).
Exactly what it says on the tin. |
12-03-2022, 10:45 AM | #7 |
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12-03-2022, 11:57 AM | #8 | |
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I don't care for pastiches that reuse others characters in general. I also don't care for books where the author has an adventure in the style of their character (Doyle investigating Jack the Ripper, for example).
Having said that, I did enjoy The List Of 7 by Mark Frost. I mainly bought the book because Mark was the co-creator of Twin Peaks and The List of 7 was a massive bestseller at the time. I zipped through the book and have recommended it. Followed by a sequel, The 6 Messiahs, which must have bombed as it is OOP. I have it in paperback, but haven't yet read it. Quote:
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12-03-2022, 12:19 PM | #9 | |
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Quote:
I haven't read any of those mysteries where Doyle or Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters or Emily Dickinson (!) solve mysteries. I've been sort of tempted (semi-tempted?) with a couple. But just sort of... |
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12-03-2022, 06:35 PM | #10 | |||
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Quote:
Another one I picked up but haven't yet read is The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont. Quote:
Quote:
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12-03-2022, 06:39 PM | #11 |
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12-06-2022, 10:50 PM | #12 |
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Almost all Sherlock Holmes adventures were short stories, so it is in the short story field you will find the best Holmes take-offs, whether pastiche or parody.
You might think of August Derleth's Solar Pons series of stories, very much in the character of the originals; or at the other extreme the outright spoofs and jokes versions, by everyone from J M Barrie and Bret Harte onwards. There are many spoofs and pastiches in the Past Masters series of anthologies of short stories in the Patricia Clarke Memorial Library. |
12-07-2022, 07:54 AM | #13 | |
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Quote:
Here is the first one on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sh...-and-pastiches The reviews of the first one on Amazon were pretty bad, mostly because people didn't like the stories. But I think people expected the stories to be more like pastiches and were upset to get a lot of parodies. But how else are you going to find a penny dreadful story about Sherwood Hoakes without spending a lot of money? |
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12-07-2022, 09:12 AM | #14 |
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I'm going to go totally different and recommend the Enola Holmes books by Nancy Springer.
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12-07-2022, 12:35 PM | #15 |
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Tags |
mysteries, pastiches, sherlock holmes, sherlock holmes parody |
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