Fri 20 Dec 2013
Reviewed by Ray O’Leary: MICHAEL KURLAND, Editor – Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years.
Posted by Steve under Editors & Anthologies , Reviews[6] Comments
MICHAEL KURLAND, Editor – Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years. St. Martin’s, hardcover, November 2004; softcover, January 2006.
A solid collection of 12 pastiches recounting some of the adventures Holmes had during the “missing years” when he was thought to have died with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. All are original to this volume except for “The God of the Naked Unicorn,” by Richard Lupoff, written in 1976.
Highlights are “The Beast of the Guangming Peak,” by Michael Mallory, which has an elderly Colonel in a retired soldiers’ home recalling events 50 years ago in the Himalayas on which he met an explorer named Sigerson (Holmes’s alias) and needy met the abominable snowman.
“The Case of the Lugubrious Servant,” by Rhys Bowen, has Holmes suffering from amnesia after his encounter with Moriarty and thought to be a half-wit. He’s working as a handyman at a Swiss inn where he meets Sigmund Freud and recovers his memory in time to solve a murder.
“The Bughouse Caper” features Holmes in San Francisco where Pronzini’s cowboy/PI Jack Quincannon gets jealous of him while working on a burglary and murder case. Michael Kurland’s own “Reichenbach” has both Holmes and Moriarty faking their deaths to go undercover for the British government at the behest of brother Mycroft.
In “The Adventure of the Missing Detective,” by Gary Lovisi, Holmes crosses into a parallel universe where he died and Moriarty survived to become the power behind King Albert Christian Edward Victor of England (Victoria’s grandson thought by some to be Jack the Ripper) who is turning Britain into a dictatorship.
And “Cross of Gold” by Michael Collins tells the story of an elderly stepgrandmother telling how the grandfather, a newly arrived immigrant to America, was accused of murdering a wealthy man because of his left-wing sympathies and was cleared by Sherlock Holmes in New York City. The grandson is Dan Fortune.
These and the other stories here make worthwhile reading and healthy additions to the mountain of Holmes stories written about him since Conan Doyle went to that undiscovered country.
December 20th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
Holmes pastiche is a genre in and of itself, and Kurland long a reliable practitioner.
Since I’ve been writing Arsene Lupin pastiche (The Many Faces Of Arsene Lupin) I’ve come to appreciate the balance between saying something new and entertaining (hopefully)and keeping faithful to the original.
In Holmes case pastiche has always attracted some extraordinary talents and some brilliant ones at that.
December 20th, 2013 at 8:23 pm
This will seem like heresy here, but I’ve never been that fond of the Holmes works themselves, much less the pastiches. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the review!
December 20th, 2013 at 8:59 pm
I’ve never read this particular anthology, but I’ve read quite a number of other Holmes-related pastiches, and I can tell you that the quality varies all over the place. There are a lot of people who once they’ve read a Sherlock Holmes story think they can write one, and the fact is, they can’t.
I’d trust Kurland as an editor well enough to say that this one might be worth tracking down. On the other hand, I probably won’t. I have a feeling that I’ve read all of the Holmes pastiches I need to. I have too many other books and magazines on hand and clamoring for attention.
December 20th, 2013 at 10:43 pm
There’s at least one friend and three reliable pro’s here, so I would be more likely to try it. The genre has exploded so that it’s almost impossible to do anything but dabble. When ever that old safe deposit box from Cox’s seem a bit too bountiful I turn to Robert Fish and Shylock Homes for relief.
December 21st, 2013 at 12:50 am
It took me a while to find it online, but I believe that here is a complete list of all eleven stories in this collection:
1) ‘THE BEAST OF GUANGMING PARK’ by Michael Mallory.
2) ‘WATER FROM THE MOON’ by Carolyn Wheat.
3) ‘MR. SIGERSON’ by Peter Beagle.
4) ‘THE MYSTERY OF DR. THORVALD SIGERSON’ by Linda Robertson.
5) ‘THE CASE OF THE LUGUBRIOUS MANSERVANT’ by Rhys Bowen.
6) ‘THE BUGHOUSE CAPER’ by Bill Pronzini.
7) ‘REICHENBACH’ by Michael Kurland.
8 ) ‘THE STRANGE CASE OF THE VOODOO PRINCESS’ by Carole Bugge.
9) ‘THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING DETECTIVE’ by Gary Lovisi.
10) ‘CROSS OF GOLD’ by Michael Collins.
11) ‘GOD OF THE NAKED UNICORN’ by Richard Lupoff.
December 21st, 2013 at 4:15 pm
By now there are more pastiches than original stories. I gave up trying to keep track of them years ago. I will be teaching a class in Sherlock Holmes in the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium in January and February and expect to have something to say about pastiches so this is very timely.