Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective

While I’ve long been a Sherlock Holmes fan, for the most part I didn’t bother getting into the various Sherlock Holmes pastiches and such until somewhat recently. One series in particular I’ve enjoyed has been the “Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective” books from Airship 27. At present, the series consists of six short-story collections, a novel, and two Doctor Watson volumes. The seventh volume recently came out.

Volume 1

This volumes has five stories, and sets the tone for the series, with info on each author and an afterward after each story, along with a final essay by editor Ron Fortier.

We get a story centered around soccer, when a famous player is found dead in his clubhouse. Another is a locked room mystery. A story set at a peace conference also includes Mycroft Holmes and Professor Moriarty. Another story is a double murder, including a dead man on a naval vessel. A good first start, I thought.

Volume 2

This volume has five stories.

One stories has Dr. Moreau in it. Another has someone building a mechanical computer. Another story starts off when a dead body is found in a bank vault. Yet another deals with pirates harrassing the Royal Navy.

Volume 3

This volume has five stories, plus a brief essay.

We get a story that takes its inspiration from the Collingley Fairies story that Conan Doyle himself investigated and was duped by. Another deals with a case of mummy theft, for reasons bizarre when you come to the end. The next story deals with Moriarty’s organization after he left. You wouldn’t think they just disappeared when he did? When Inspector Lestrade is injured in an assassination attempt, Holmes sets in to help bring the criminal organization to justice in the following story. The final story has Holmes deal with a nice haunted house case, that also involved a real person from the period.

Volume 4

This volume has five stories, plus a brief essay.

One story dealt with a Japanese sword, another with a strange clockwork automaton that apparently killed its owner. Another story dealt with revenge and the slave trade, and another about a bizarre plot to replace an heiress. I thought it interesting that three of the five stories dealt with government matters and had Sherlock’s brother Mycroft present. One story dealt with the murder of policeman, something the original ones never had. Overall, a great set of stories.

Volume 5

This volume has four stories, three of them involving Professor Moriarty. One story deals with a brother who wants to bump off his sister and brother-in-law for their inheritance. What makes this one a good one is how Holmes comes up with a way to smoke out the villain. The next story tells of a nearly 100-year-old man being murdered by his long-time friend. The mystery was why it happened, which Holmes much unravel. Then we have a story that deals with both Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty going after the same villain. The author was very creative in his use of the characters, and worked to fit it into the canon. The final story has Holmes falling victim to an assassination attempt that has Watson teaming up with Mycroft to solve it. The author also makes this one a sequel to his story in the first volume, as well as tying in Moriarty.

Volume 6

This volume has five stories from four authors. First off is a very interesting story with Dr. Watson finding himself in a sanitarium, and told he’s not Dr. Watson! A sinister new villain is trying to destroy both Holmes and Watson. Will he succeed? Next is a story where Holmes and Watson help out a relative of Mrs. Hudson, who is a young teacher at a school. He has somehow gotten tangled into a plot of revenge against another. What is interesting is how a real person is worked into the story. Then we have a story of Holmes going after a group of jewel thieves that is actually based on a real crime for that time. Dr. Watson’s future wife also plays a part in this story. Then next is a shorter mystery where Holmes must figure out the real murdered in a case. The final story answers what happened to Moriarty’s organization after his death, as well as what his “The Dynamics of an Asteroid” was really about. An interesting one.

Revenge of the Baron

The sole novel in this series by Gary Lovisi, has the return of Baron Gruber from the original Holmes story “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.” I honestly did not recall this character, since it had been so long since I read the originals (high school, and I never re-read them). I had to go read up on the story to better appreciate this story. Overall, I thought it a good story, but maybe if I had recalled the character better it might have had a bigger impact on me.

Season of Madness, a Dr. Watson Adventure.

Others have taken up writing new tales of Sherlock Holmes. More adventurous writers have also written stories about Mycroft Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, Irene Adler, the Baker Street Irregulars and even Professor Moriarty. I have no idea if any have written tales of Dr. John Watson without Holmes, but now we have.

This book holds two stories by Aaron Smith. The first, the title tale, is a novel staring Dr. Watson teamed up with another literary man of science, Dr. Seward, a character from “Dracula.” I have to be honest that I didn’t recall Dr Seward, but it’s also been many years since I’ve read “Dracula” (again high school). But here, the two team up to deal with a most perplexing and dangerous threat.

The rest of the book has a short story (or should we say novelette?) starting an original character created by Aaron Smith: Hound Dog Harker of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Here we have a character along the lines of Bulldog Drummond set in the 1930s. The title “The Electric Shark” may give a hint as to the basic plot. The plot and character background are a little more “inventive” than Drummond, which would lead to some interesting future storylines. Some readers may pickup on the background of Harker.

Dr. Watson’s American Adventure

Like the previous Dr. Watson volume, this one also holds two stories. The first, the title tale, is a novel staring Dr Watson teamed up with another famous, but real, individual, Theodore Roosevelt. This tale is set during the period when Holmes was thought dead after his encounter with Moriarty. And it’s a story that also deals with some of the unknown background of Dr. Watson’s first wife, whom he married after “The Sign of Four.” (Note: some Holmes fans feel that Dr. Watson actually had a couple of wives, all named Mary). This story has Watson and his wife going to New York as guests of Roosevelt, then the Adirondacks, then Watson and Roosevelt going out west. While the villains are caught, the final story of his first wife’s family and their mystery is not given. I do hope we get a conclusion to this in a future volume.

The rest of the book is another Hound Dog Harker story. The title “Hyde & Seek” may give a hint as to the basic plot. We get some more hints of the main character that I hope will be touched on in future stories. One of the characters that joins in is Dr. Seward, (not surprising the appearances of other literary characters in this story, and the hints as to the parentage of Harker himself).

There are a few minor “issues” I should point out in the overall series. I was a little disappointed that the “Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective” logo that graced the first 3 volumes was dropped for a new logo starting with the novel. But I’ve been told that the old logo was hard to read with the thumbprint size artwork on places like Amazon, so it had to go. Sorry to see that happen, as I thought it a very classy logo. Also, I had liked the fact that Airship 27 replaced their more modern dirigible logo with an old-style airship on the earlier volumes, and sad to see that stop as well. The earlier works were done when Airship 27 was working with Cornerstone Books, and so some of these collections may not yet be available again on Amazon. Check their webstore for where to get the books now.

Regardless, I look forward to future volumes, especially any new Dr. Watson volumes. I’d like to see Hound Dog Harker migrate to his own volume, as I think he’s an interesting character in his own right, but who knows.