I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

Remembering Peter Ruber, BSI

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6XpX0NGRyaVL0lrB5LYWpxDJukibEzAMOtQqNSnnANB6_QIYxGnZ55nuVkQUU4zw4hJHQMPKIKC42EHlmZLajlvIKVhLHOot3OspKV_l9odkwgeNBaYY5ZNUQxU0fpotgo-3679POX3-m/s1600/Peter+Ruber,+BSI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Peter Ruber" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6XpX0NGRyaVL0lrB5LYWpxDJukibEzAMOtQqNSnnANB6_QIYxGnZ55nuVkQUU4zw4hJHQMPKIKC42EHlmZLajlvIKVhLHOot3OspKV_l9odkwgeNBaYY5ZNUQxU0fpotgo-3679POX3-m/s1600/Peter+Ruber,+BSI.jpg" title="Peter Ruber" /></a></div>
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Peter A. Ruber, BSI ("Camden House") died on Long Island on March 6, 2014 at the age of 73. He was born in Vienna and emigrated to the US in 1948. He was an executive with the New York advertising agency Kenyon & Eckhardt in the 1960's and for the past two decades was a consultant and free-lance journalist for many leading business information technology magazines. There was a time that he had thirty- seven different computer systems operating in his office. At one time Peter also owned and operated a catering business, and then operated a business selling bulk food supplies to senior citizens and institutions.<br />
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In the early 60's Peter traveled to Chicago and met both Vincent Starrett and Jay Finley Christ. In 1961 he published <i>Sherlock's Anniversaries</i>, a collection of Christ's columns from the <i>Chicago Tribune</i> from his Crowborough Private Press and <i>Finch's Final Fling</i> in 1963 from his Candlelight Press created the same year. He edited and published four issues of <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1ipviJx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Baker Street Gasogene</a></i> (1961-1962). <br />
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In 1963 his Candlelight Press reprinted Conan Doyle's <i>Strange Stories from Life</i> published by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Society. As a young man in his twenties, he became friends with Vincent Starrett and took every chance he could get to visit him in Chicago. He collected many letters to and from Starrett and, at the age of 28, published a tribute volume <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1eyUkFj" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Last Bookman</a></i>, which is perhaps his best-known publication, edited and published from his Candlelight Press in 1968.<br />
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He came to know and publish many books by Arkham House founder August Derleth between 1962-1971, some under his Candlelight Press imprint, and had been researching Derleth's life and time for many years. Peter published many collectible Solar Pons volumes including Derleth's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1jmWDv6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Praed Street Papers</a></i> and <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1nOfNAi" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Adventure of the Orient Express</a></i> from his Candlelight Press, and worked with Luther Norris to found <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Praed-Street-Irregulars/107156039322358" target="_blank">The Praed Street Irregulars</a> in the mid-1960s.<br />
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Peter was appointed as the editor of Arkham House Publishers from 1997 through 2007, worked as a editor with <a href="http://www.batteredbox.com/" target="_blank">The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box</a> from 1994 through 2004, was the initial editor for The Vincent Starrett Memorial Library, and edited, for Ash-Tree Press, a collection of previously unpublished ghost stories <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1gn8FH7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Reunion at Dawn</a></i> by H. Russell Wakefield (2000) and <i><a href="http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/atp97nightcreatures.htm" target="_blank">Night Creatures</a></i> by Seabury Quinn (2003).<br />
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Peter is survived by his wife Gail, his three boys, two granddaughters and one grandson. He was invested into The Baker Street Irregulars in 1964 as "Camden House."<br />
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Special thanks to George Vanderburgh for his contribution to this piece.</div>
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<i>Image credit: Karen Murdoch</i> </div>
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Remembering Peter Ruber, BSI

Peter A. Ruber, BSI ("Camden House") died on Long Island on March 6, 2014 at the age of 73. He was born in Vienna and emigrated...

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by Francine Kitts

Further Encounters of Sherlock Holmes - A Review

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<h4>
“this preposterous company” [STOC]</h4>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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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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Further Encounters of Sherlock Holmes - A Review

“this preposterous company” [STOC] Not every Sherlockian is a fan of the pastiche, and nowhere in this hobby will you find a larg...

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by Nick M

How Much Do We Really Know About Mrs. Hudson?

<h4 style="text-align: center;">
“Our worthy landlady” [SIGN]</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZSsJlD1-6_k7BsOQC2tbZGwjcY-rIRzoMzlLO-ZZ63JPSjHOrHKn7tCoouFbkr6qAuoqNbXq2XNCa1pUvUpUeM47aRETkdNXg_5rq5zBa-t0YgIpFi-6YKNYhQvtjEILmJ02fYvvKiE9H/s1600/Rosalie+Williams+as+Mrs.+Hudson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Rosalie Williams as Mrs. Hudson in the Granada Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett" border="0" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZSsJlD1-6_k7BsOQC2tbZGwjcY-rIRzoMzlLO-ZZ63JPSjHOrHKn7tCoouFbkr6qAuoqNbXq2XNCa1pUvUpUeM47aRETkdNXg_5rq5zBa-t0YgIpFi-6YKNYhQvtjEILmJ02fYvvKiE9H/s1600/Rosalie+Williams+as+Mrs.+Hudson.jpg" title="Mrs. Hudson" width="640" /></a></div>
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"Mrs. Hudson leave Baker Street? England would fall!"---Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in <a href="http://amzn.to/1gEB4Hm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"A Scandal in Belgravia"</a>
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That sentiment probably sums up most Sherlockians' feelings of literature’s most famous landlady; Baker Street would not be Baker Street without Mrs. Hudson. But the fact is she is barely in the Canon and we know next to nothing about her. In the first Holmes and Watson adventure, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://amzn.to/1mgmt8D" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A Study in Scarlet</a></i>, where we might expect one of Watson’s insightful thumbnail sketches of the woman she is unnamed and unseen.
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What do we know about her?<br />
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<h4>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">At one time she was married.</b> </h4>
Yes, she is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mrs.</i> Hudson but nowhere is it stated she was a widow or ever married. "Mrs." could have been an honorific, a title of respect for a businesswoman. As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs.">Wikipedia</a> has it: "In several languages the title for married women, such as <i>Madame</i>, <i>Señora</i>, <i>Signora</i>, or <i>Frau</i>, is the direct feminine equivalent of the title used for men; the title for unmarried women is a diminutive: <i>Mademoiselle</i>, <i>Señorita</i>, <i>Signorina</i>, or <i>Fräulein</i>. For this reason, usage had shifted towards using the married title as  the default for all women in professional usage. This had long been followed in the United Kingdom for some high-ranking household staff, such as housekeepers, cooks, and nannies, who were called <i>Mrs.</i> as a mark of respect regardless of marital status." Those of a certain age may well remember calling their elementary school teacher "Mrs. Jones" whether she was married or not.
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<h4>
<b>She was Scottish.</b> </h4>
Holmes says in "The Naval Treaty," "Mrs. Hudson has risen to the occasion. Her cuisine is a little limited, but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotswoman." Is Holmes saying that because as a Scotswoman she has a good idea of breakfast or her idea of breakfast compares favorably to a generic Scotswoman’s? The wording of Holmes’ statement is ambiguous at best.
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<h4>
She was a portly, motherly (or grandmotherly) woman.</h4>
Much has been made of the unnamed landlady's "stately tread" in STUD, the closest thing we get to a physical description of her. From it scholars have inferred her weight and age, but the statement has been taken out of context. "Ten o'clock passed, and I heard the footsteps of the maid as they pattered off to bed. Eleven, and the more stately tread of the <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">landlady</span> passed my door, bound for the same destination." The landlady's tread is "more stately" than the maid's patter. The maid may well have been a young teen, a common enough occurrences for the time, and the adult Mrs. Hudson would have a statelier tread by comparison. Nowhere else in the Canon do we get any hint of her age. Manly W. Wellman and Wade Wellman postulate that she was a young widow and in their pastiche <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Further-Adventures-Sherlock-Holmes/dp/1848564910"><i>Sherlock Holmes’s War of the Worlds</i></a> make her Holmes’ love interest.
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<h4>
<b>Her first name may have been Martha.</b></h4>
<a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/02/episode-61-private-life-of-vincent.html#.Uxzxb859Kuk">Vincent Starrett's</a> essay "The Singular Adventures of Martha Hudson" in <i><a href="http://amzn.to/OA7VCr" target="_blank">Baker Street Studies</a></i> (an essential for any Sherlockian library) has had a profound influence on the popular conception of Mrs. Hudson. He writes:
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Whether she owned the building or rented it from another is not clear; but---although it is nowhere explicitly stated---there can be no reasonable doubt that she retired with Holmes in Sussex….Writing, in his retirement, of the curious mystery of The Lion’s Mane, it is Holmes himself who furnishes the clue. "My house is lonely," he tells us. "I, my old housekeeper, and my bees have the estate all to ourselves."</blockquote>
Starrett then baldly states that it was Mrs. Hudson that Holmes placed in Von Bork’s household (<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"That is Martha, the only servant I have left.") in "His Last Bow." There is no evidence to suppose Mrs. Hudson was either or both women and plenty to suggest she was neither. In LAST, there is no recognition or greeting from Watson that Martha is the old Baker Street landlady that he had probably not seen in ten years. And it seems
unlikely that Mrs. Hudson would voluntarily take a decrease in social rank from independent businesswoman to housekeeper to stay with a former lodger that "must have sorely tried her patience" over the years. Further, in LION, it seems more probable that Holmes is speaking of his <i>aged</i> housekeeper, not his <i>former</i> landlady-now-domestic. </span><br />
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If we look at the Canon as a series of plays we can see what a bit player she really was on the Baker Street scene. On-stage in 11 out of the 60 stories; out of 11 stories speaks only 3 times; 26 lines of dialogue. Contrast that with Professor Moriarty, who is in only one story out of 60, "The Final Problem" (although mentioned in several), and is off stage—present only in Holmes’ reminiscence—but has 21
lines of dialogue.</span><br />
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STUD  p offs nd         REIG                           WIST ons nd</div>
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SIGN  ons d               CROO                         BRUC</div>
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SCAN ons nd             RESI                           <span style="color: blue;">DEVI</span></div>
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REDH                         GREE                         REDC</div>
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IDEN                          NAVA ons nd              LADY np m</div>
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<span style="color: blue;">BOSC</span>                         <span style="color: red;">FINA</span>                          DYIN ons d</div>
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FIVE np m                  HOUN                        VALL ons nd</div>
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<span style="color: red;">TWIS</span>                          EMPT  ons d               <span style="color: blue;">LAST</span></div>
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BLUE np m                 NORW                        MAZA np m</div>
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SPEC  np m                DANC ons nd              THOR</div>
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ENGR                         SOLI                           CREE</div>
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NOBL                         PRIO                           SUSS</div>
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BERY                         BLAC ons nd               3GAR ons nd</div>
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COPP                         CHAS                         ILLU</div>
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SILV                           SIXN                          3GAB</div>
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CARD                         <span style="color: blue;">3STU</span>                           BLAN</div>
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YELL                          GOLD                         <span style="color: blue;">LION</span></div>
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STOC                          MISS                          RETI</div>
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GLOR                         ABBE                         VEIL</div>
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MUSG                        SECO  ons nd             SHOS</div>
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<span style="color: blue;">TITLE</span>---no action at Baker Street<br />
<span style="color: red;">TITLE</span>---no action at Baker Street, but Baker Street is mentioned</div>
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 m—mentioned   p—present     np—not present   ons—on stage   offs—off stage  d—dialogue   nd—no dialogue</div>
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<b>STUD </b>off-stage, no name given, present in sound effects only</div>
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<b>SIGN </b>on-stage, 10 lines of dialogue, delivers card on tray</div>
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<b>SCAN </b>on-stage, 0 lines of dialogue, “Mrs. Turner”</div>
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<b>FIVE </b>not present, mentioned by Holmes as “the landlady”</div>
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<b>BLUE </b>not present, mentioned by Holmes as “Mrs. Hudson”</div>
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<b>SPEC</b> not present, mentioned by Holmes as “Mrs. Hudson”</div>
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<b>NAVA </b>on-stage, 0 lines of dialogue, brings breakfast trays</div>
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<b>EMPT </b>on-stage, 3 lines of dialogue</div>
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<b>DANC </b>on-stage, 0 lines of dialogue, brings cablegram</div>
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<b>BLAC </b>on-stage, 0 lines of dialogue, mentioned by Watson as having prepared breakfast and later relaying the arrival of three visitors</div>
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<b>SECO </b>on-stage, 0 lines of dialogue, brings card on tray<br />
<b>VALL </b>on-stage, 0 lines of dialogue, relays message that Cecil Barker is waiting</div>
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<b>WIST </b>off-stage lets Gregson and Baynes in, on-stage, 0 lines of dialogue, lets Gregson, Baynes and Scott Eccles out</div>
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<b>DYIN </b>on-stage, 13 lines of dialogue, visits Watson</div>
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<b>LADY </b>not present, mentioned by Holmes as “Mrs. Hudson”</div>
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<b>MAZA </b>not present, mentioned by Billy the page as “Mrs. Hudson”</div>
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<b>3GAR </b>on-stage, 0 lines of dialogue, brings card on tray</div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">
Special note: in <b>ENGR </b>Watson brings Victor Hatherley to Baker Street where Holmes was "<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">lounging about his sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of <i>The Times</i>, and smoking his before-breakfast pipe….He received us in his quietly genial fashion, ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal." Mrs. Hudson--not present, not mentioned, not even a thought to Holmes or Watson; it's as if breakfast magically appeared.</span> </span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
Even in those adventures where she has a large part to play we are aware of her separateness from Holmes and Watson. In "The Dying
Detective," Mrs. Hudson goes to the home of the married Watson to seek help for the apparently dying Holmes. After seeing Holmes, Watson goes to Culverton Smith leaving Mrs. Hudson "waiting, trembling and weeping,
in the passage". At the end, after Smith is lead away from Holmes’ bedroom in handcuffs by Inspector Morton, do we get a scene with Mrs. Hudson relieved that Holmes is not dying and anger at him for being fooled ("It was very essential that I should impress Mrs. Hudson with the reality of my condition, since she was to convey it to you, and you in turn to [Smith]. You won't be offended, Watson?")? No, it’s off to Simpson's for the pair and the reader is left to conjecture on Mrs. Hudson's mental, emotional and physical state. </span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />In "The Empty House," after hours during which she crawled into a sitting room where an air gun bullet could fly at any moment, she is brusquely dismissed by Holmes.
<br />
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"I hope you preserved all precautions, Mrs. Hudson?" said Holmes.</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"I went to it on my knees, sir, just as you told me."</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"Excellent. You carried the thing out very well. Did you observe where the bullet went?"</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"Yes, sir. I'm afraid it has spoiled your beautiful bust, for it passed right through the head and flattened itself on the wall. I picked it up from the carpet. Here it is!"</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Holmes held it out to me. "A soft revolver bullet, as you perceive, Watson. There's genius in that, for who would expect to find such a thing fired from an air-gun? <i><b>All right, Mrs. Hudson, I am much obliged for your assistance</b></i>. And now, Watson, let me see you in your old seat once more, for there are several points which I should like to discuss with you." </span></blockquote>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">
</span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">[<i>Emphasis added-- ed</i>.]</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In the Granada series, Mrs. Hudson brought up a bottle of champagne and three glasses to toast Holmes's return, but no such chummy scene in the Canon exists. Holmes and Watson were no cronies of the landlady, no matter how much affection they may have had for her. Perhaps the relationships between Holmes, Watson and Mrs. Hudson were governed more by Victorian class and social mores and gender politics than we care to think about. "The Man With the Twisted Lip" ends with Holmes saying, "I think, Watson, that if we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." After spending several days at Neville St. Clair's home, The Cedars in Lee, Kent, Holmes expects to arrive at 221B unannounced, with Watson in tow, and get a hot cooked meal. The relationship is one of service provider and consumer, with "breakfast" being the closest thing to an acknowldgement of Mrs. Hudson and her role.
</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It is, then, the Sherlockian scholars, the pasticheurs, the writers of plays and screenplays, and the generation of readers who bring Mrs. Hudson into the inner circle of Baker Street life, who give the blank slate Watson presents us with any sort of detail. For indeed, "Mrs. Hudson, the landlady of Sherlock Holmes, was a long-suffering</span> woman." She not only had to put up with "the very worst tenant in London"
but a physician, who, in his writings, treated her like an extra in her own house. 
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How Much Do We Really Know About Mrs. Hudson?

“Our worthy landlady” [SIGN] "Mrs. Hudson leave Baker Street? England would fall!"---Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holm...

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by James C. O'Leary

Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes - A Review

<h4 style="text-align: center;">
"I have even heard that you go to the length of boxing" [LAST]</h4>
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<br />
Many Sherlockians enjoy portrayals of Sherlock Holmes's deduction and intellectual skills, and tend to avoid his lesser-known expertise in fighting and hand-to-hand combat. However, as part of the <a href="http://fightcardbooks.com/"><b>Fight Card</b> series of novels</a> focusing on boxing, Andrew Salmon's <b><i>Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes</i></b> (<a href="http://amzn.to/1cOGC2u" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon US</a> | A<a href="http://amzn.to/1dcZ0Nx" target="_blank">mazon UK</a>) focuses on both in equal measure, providing an entertaining read focusing on Holmes' ability to handle both physical and intellectual combat.<br />
<br />
Like its more contemporary books in the series, <i>Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes</i> focuses on boxing, but with a Victorian-era Holmes, it's bare knuckle, barely legal, and rife with storytelling possibilities. (This is one of the most well-researched books I've read - Salmon not only provides a glossary, but manages to integrate his research into Victorian boxing practices into the story without calling undue attention). <br />
<br />
<i>Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes</i> is one of the most gripping Holmes stories to be published, moving beyond pastiche into more full-blooded territory (and the pun is <i>fully</i> intentional). Imagine the scene: it's shortly before Christmas, 1884, and Holmes is engaging in a bout with an old friend. Shortly after the bout ends, someone enters the hall screaming "Murder!"<br />
<br />
The game, as Holmes would announce, is <i>definitely</i> afoot after that.<br />
<br />
Salmon's tale rips along at a breakneck pace as Holmes and Watson make their way through the seamier side of Victorian London. All manner of criminals abound, including a new classic Holmes villain in former fighter Tanner. <i>Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes</i> balances both the brutality of bare-knuckle fighting and the raw intellectual power of Holmes' deductions, coming to a climax that is well-earned and well-deserved.<br />
<br />
Plenty of pastiches mix Holmes and a variety of contexts and genres, but <i>Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes</i> accomplishes something far greater: expanding the context of Holmes' world, providing a much richer, deeper read that...well, let's just say that we now have a great Holmes boxing story as well as a great Holmes Christmas story.<br />
<br />
<i>Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes</i> is available both in print and electronic form. Either way, this is a definite must-read.<br />
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<i>(Disclosure: a complimentary electronic copy was provided for review purposes)</i><br />
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