Continuing to catch up on my reading of the excellent “Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective” series from Airship 27, this time I go over volumes 9 through 11 and one of their new novels.
Each of these volumes are well designed, with good to great cover artwork by different authors, interior art by Rob Davis, and each story has a one-to-three-page essay by the author on their story and the background on it. And we get a brief bio of each author. This is what I expect from New Pulp publishers, which we don’t always get. Some of the same authors appear in various volumes, such as I.A. Watson who appears in all.
Volume 9
We get five mysteries from four authors. First up is I.A. Watson’s piece, which has Holmes looking into a real-life mystery: the disappearance of all the lighthouse keepers from an offshore lighthouse off the west coast of Scotland. The setting is totally real, a lighthouse where the keepers need to live in, on an island so hard to access they had to build iron piers on both sides for ships to get to, when a massive storm hits and all three disappear. Not only Holmes is able to solve the crime, but rescue some of the potential victims.
Fred Adams Jr. gives us two stories. The first of these has a tie to Dr. Watson’s service in Afganistan as one of the Baker Street Irregulars comes to Holmes with a problem. His uncle has been accused of murder. Two men were murdered, strangled with a leather garrote, and the tracks seem to point to the uncle and his friend. Both had served in the same regiment that left the uncle one-legged and his friend blinded, such that they must rely on each other. Holmes finds that the two men killed were in the same regiment. More so, all four were in a mission that resulted in the two men scarred for the life and the death of another at the hands of the Afghans. Are they all connected and will there be more deaths?
His second story has Holmes approached by a man who won’t identify himself, who states that he has been robbed of a blackmail letter. Holmes figures out that the letter was not really the man’s, but of his employer’s, who refuses to be identified. Obviously, he is a public figure like a politician. Holmes takes the case and works to track it down. But the case takes a sinister turn when they find the pickpocket dying of a deadly disease. Traking things down puts them both at risk.
From Erik Franklin is another story tied to Watson’s military service. When a waitress is murdered, the crime points to a recent customer. Looking at the evidence, it seems to point to a man Watson saved in Afghanistan and who saved him after he was wounded. Is he guilty, or is there something more to this?
Finally, Aaron Smith provides an interesting story when Holmes is approached with a missing person case. An artist had met a Brazilian woman, but didn’t get her name, then finds her silver broach broken in the street and thinks something has happened to her. Thankfully as an artist he has done very detailed sketches of her face. This leds them into a very sinister matter that they are able to break.
Volume 10
This time we get the usual four stories, but from three authors. First up is I.A. Watson’s piece, which is a novella taking up half the volume. It is set during the period when Holmes was thought dead and was traveling as Norwegian explorer Sigerson, more specifically right after he “died” as we start with his funeral. We get parallel stories, one with Watson working with Wiggin and Billy the Pageboy to deal with some matters left undone, and the other with Irene Adler meeting Sigerson in Montenegro. In the backdrop of this we have Watson publishing the first of the Holmes stories.
Aaron Smith provides two pieces. The first is an interesting tale of a group of veterans, the last survivors of a group that went after Thuggees disguised as Sikhs. They still keep their long beards and once a year came together to remember their fallen colleagues. But lately a strange man, also with a beard, has been appearing nearby. They ask Holmes to look into it. For once we have a mystery that isn’t based on a crime. His second one is a very short work that has Holmes solving a series of crimes where theater patrons find their homes robbed while they are at the play.
Greg Hatcher provides a tale that is centered around some of Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars, in particular some who have grown up. Wiggins, his most well known member, now married, is accused of murdering another of the grown up Irregulars. His wife and another former Irregular comes to Holmes for help. In doing so, Holmes and Watson come up against more sinister matters, centered around Moriarty‘s former organization, now a “Hierarchy.” Readers may enjoyed Hatcher’s notes afterwards on this group as well as what the future might hold for Wiggins and his family. (Maybe Watson and Hatcher should have compared notes so they’d be consistant with Wiggins first name and wife.)
Volume 11
And now we are back with four stories by four authors. As usually, I.A. Watson kicks things off with his story, which again pits Holmes against a real mystery of the times: the finding of a woman’s torso in the building that would become the New Scotland Yard. Here he is able to track down who is behind it. And no, it wasn’t the Ripper, who was operating around the same time.
Lee Houston Jr. provides us with a tale that seems to be simple. Holmes is approached to find a portrait that has been stolen from a weathly man’s home. It’s the portrait of his deceased first wife, he is able to marry his second, and was painted by a fairly unknown painter. Nothing else was stolen from his study. But there is more to this case then it seems as the man has guards around his home, and when Holmes and Watson go to visit the artist, they find Inspector Lestrade there as the artist was murdered. What is behind this all?
In a story set after Holmes’ “return,” Peter Basile gives us a story that starts when a U.S. Marshal, Cordrell Vance shows up asking for help in finding his old partner: “Mike Croft.” He had figured out who Holmes was during the time he was thought dead. Once that is out of the way, the Marshal asks for assistance in tracking down a fugitive: Sailor Ned, a dangerous and cunning gang leader from out west who is really from England and who is apparently taking over the criminal underworld in London. Captured, he escapes and is going after the Marshal and his new bride. Can he be stopped for he kills again? Do read the author’s essay, which gives a lot of great background and promises a possible return of Vance.
In Greg Hatcher’s tale, Holmes and Watson are faced with a serial killer who is taunting Holmes with riddles. And he seems to have a strange obsession with those connected with The Sign of Four. Three people are soon dead, and another is targeted. Can they put a stop to the criminal before he kills again, and unmask him? And what is the connection with that old case?
‘Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Iron Crown’
Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Iron Crown is a novel by Ray Lovato and Michael A. Black, better known as the creators/authors of the Doc Atlas stories, now also at Airship 27. Things kick off when Inspector Hopkins brings Holmes into this case.
There has been a fire, theft, and murder at the Masonic Hall. The head of the lodge was bludgened to death, a fire started, two men were seen leaving, one a member of the lodge, and a metal box with papers are missing. As Holmes and Watson look into the case, it turns out much bigger then they expected. Additional murders are found, including both the fire chief who inspected the lodge, and turns out was a mason, and one of the two men fleeing. Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson bring Holmes some of these murders, so we have all three involved.
The case involves not just the Freemasons, but also the Templars, the Illuminati, and who knows who else. It seems to involved that set of papers, which may have clues, in code, that may lead to the Iron Crown of Lombardy, a real Christian relic that isn’t lost. Will Holmes be able to figure out who is behind this all, and maybe find this lost relic?
One item that confuses me in this story is that the modern Knights Templar is actually a masonic appendant body that you can’t join unless you are a mason, so they are in no way a rival of the Freemasons. As ever member is in fact a Freemason.
A bonus of this work is that in addition to the usual afterwards by the authors, we get a short piece by Rob Davis on creating the artwork for this series.
More reviews are coming as I work my way up to the current volume. Check these out and all others in the series if you like good Sherlock Holmes pastiches that try to stay true to the canon.
Thanks for review these Michael.