While I don’t try to get every possible new Sherlock Holmes novel or story collection, I will probably check out one from an author I am familiar with.
Pulp historian and author Will Murray has been doing new stories with Doc Savage, The Spider, Tarzan, and other pulp characters. I was a little surprised to see a collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories from him under his “Wild Adventures” line as I wasn’t aware he had written any Holmes stories. I finally got the first two collections.
Volume one came out in 2020 from Altus Press, with a nice wraparound cover by Joe DeVito and a map of story locations by Jason Eckardt, who did the maps in Murray’s Cthulhu collections.
This volume has 10 canon-style stories, mainly from volumes in the series of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, which now runs over 30 volumes. This one has Murray’s first and third Holmes stories, which he has been writing since 2010, though the bulk were written from 2017 on.
In this volume, the stories we get include the following:
Holmes and Watson head to the Essex countryside to look into a strange mystery. There are claims of a blue-skinned dinosaur and apparently, there is already one death due to it. Can Holmes figure out what “The Wild Adventure of the Indigo Impossibility” actually is? Considering stories of big cats in the U.K., this sounded interesting to me. I was not aware of Watson having spent part of his youth in Australia.
An anonymous letter has Holmes heading to Limehouse in search of a possible new crime lord in “The Mystery of the Elusive Li Shen.” Is he the head of a new and dangerous opium ring, or a myth? Who is the noseless man? And who is behind the anonymous letter?
“The Adventure of Old Black Duffel?” deals not with a duffel bag, but a mysterious criminal known only by his black duffel coat. He makes his attack on a victim, then disappears around the Thames. Might he be aided by one of the watermen? Or is he one? But without any clues or a good description, how can they track him down and stop him?
In Will’s first Holmes story, he has Col. Richard Henry Savage as Holmes’s client. Savage was the real-life inspiration of both Doc Savage and The Avenger. Here, his popular novel, My Official Wife, is the springboard for the adventure. He is contacted by the Russian adventuress whom he thought long dead. Can Holmes help him get to the bottom of this mystery in “The Adventure of the Nebulous Nihilist”?
Three years after his disappearance, Holmes helps a couple find their boy who ran away at age 9. Did he run away to sea? Did the fairies get him? Or can Holmes figure out “The Misadventure of the Bonny Boy” and return the boy to his family?
No crime this time, but a wealthy art collector brings an unsolvable riddle to Holmes in “The Enigma of Neptune’s Quandary?” What is this enigma and can Holmes solve it? For this, he needs to assistance of one of his Irregulars with a unique skill.
In Will’s second Holmes story, a man is found dead in his office, but there also appears a ghostly version of him appears on a window pane. Is he haunting his office? “The Adventure of the Glassy Ghost” has Holmes looking into the case. Is his death natural or murder, and what does his image on the glass pane mean? Holmes gets to the bottom of things, but not before more deaths.
Dr. Watson is called in to check on a patient who didn’t get up in the morning. He finds him passed away, though he had no medical issues. The coroner examines him and finds the tip of his tongue is blue! Meeting with Holmes, it seems Holmes had just checked on a man who also died mysteriously with a blue tongue. What is the cause of “The Problem of the Bruised Tongues”? Is there a connection between these two deaths, and can Holmes figure out what or who is behind it before more die?
In a first, Dr. Watson is Holmes’ client in “The Adventure of the Throne of Gilt.” Dr. Watson starts receiving some strange letters on Thursday, from someone calling themselves Thorson. And Holmes wonders if it is connected with some strange deaths tied to lightning and electricity. If so, why is Dr. Watson being targeted? Can Holmes figure things out before more die, especially Dr. Watson?
Some is leaving bodies on Holmes’ doorstep. These are all dug from a graveyard. Who is behind “The Unsettling Matter of the Graveyard Ghoul?” And what do they hope to accomplish?
I enjoyed all of these stories, though some I liked more than others. All were clearly canon-style and not radical reimagining of the characters.
A second volume came out in 2023. A review of that will appear soon. If you enjoy canon-style Holmes stories, these are collections worth checking out.
