I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere: Nick Martorelli

Further Encounters of Sherlock Holmes - A Review

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“this preposterous company” [STOC]</h4>
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Not every Sherlockian is a fan of the pastiche, and
nowhere in this hobby will you find a larger difference of opinion as to what
reflects “quality” in a pastiche. Does the writer need to copy and evoke the
style of the original stories, or is it more important they deliver good
mystery stories? As a Sherlockian with a large pastiche library of his own, the
former measure is an added bonus, but the latter remains absolutely essential.
How fortunate then, that <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1mleCqv" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FurtherEncounters of Sherlock Holmes</a></i>, the newest collection of short stories from Titan
Books, delivers enough strong mysteries to make the volume entertaining. Those
looking for Watson’s voice should look elsewhere, but the writers do contribute
unique and memorable takes on the sleuth of Baker Street. Editor George Mann
discusses in the introduction how Sherlock Holmes can be continually reimagined
and recreated, and that is the spirit in which the stories for this collection
seem selected. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There are two outstanding stories in this volume. In “The
Girl Who Paid for Silence,” a young girl comes to Baker Street to seek Watson’s
aid, but Watson is utterly confused when Holmes cannot see the girl in
question. The resulting mystery reads more like an episode of <i>The Twilight Zone</i> than anything else,
but it is one of the strongest stories in the group. “A Betrayal of Doubt,” the
final story in the collection, tells the story of John Watson Jr. meeting the
elderly Sherlock Holmes and investigating a series of murders that have
overtones of the occult. The elderly Holmes struggles with the waning nature of
his abilities, but the focus of the short story remains on the mystery.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Some of the stories start with great potential, such as
when a thief gains access to Baker Street and raids Holmes’ cross-indexed
reference books in “The Curious Case of the Compromised Card-Index.” Or when a
foreign diplomat insists that he was almost murdered by a house in “The Case of
the Devil’s Door.” But too often, the intriguing puzzles are left with endings
that are a little too simplistic and mundane. Other stories feel as if the
writer tried to jam two disparate elements together into a single story, with
mixed results.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Overall, the stories in <i>Further Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes</i> are enjoyable and compelling, even if they do not have the flavor of
Watson-authenticity. In fact, many of the stories read like they would have
been part of the radio series, and we all know what tall tales Dr. Watson would
tell to the various representatives of Petri wine. It is a solid collection of
short stories that makes me interested in the other releases from Titan Books,
but if you aren’t already a fan of pastiches, this is probably not the place to
start.<o:p></o:p><br />
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