In early 2024, we got volume four of The Wild Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Will Murray. Murray has been doing new stories with Doc Savage, The Spider, Tarzan, and other pulp characters.
As with the previous volumes, we get 10 new canon stories, all but one taken from various anthologies. There is a great cover by Gary Carbon, which makes use of a scene from one of the stories, and another map of story locations by Jason Eckardt.
The stories range across Sherlock Holmes‘ career, and some were done for themed collections, some tie in with some original stories. All are organized chronologically. I also liked some of the creativity of the titles, so that instead of just having “The Adventure of” this or that, we get “The Misadventure of” or “The Disquieting Adventure of.”
Full disclosure, I was provided a copy to review.
Let’s take a look at what we get in this volume.
The first story is set before Holmes met Dr. Watson. It relates an early adventure with an American he met in London and how Holmes helped him out.
Next, we have a woman who comes to Holmes to help retrieve her engagement ring, which she hurled into the river after a bit of pique. It had apparently been taken by two “mudlarks.” Holmes returns it to its owner in a unique way.
In a rare Christmas tale, we have Holmes trying to solve a murder that has few clues, as the victim seemed to have no enemies.
One of the features of Holmes’ quarters is the “VR” initials shot into the wall. One story tells of how this came about and the mystery it unravels as Holmes finds a strange bottle embedded in the wall as well.
Another story has Holmes looking for another lost ring, this time taking him to search for a man in the various “doss-houses” of London for almost two weeks.
Holmes is brought in to solve another murder, this one most bizarre as it includes the fact that the victim’s head is missing.
The story involving five orange pips is a classic Holmes tale. We now get a true conclusion to the tale with a further set of orange pips.
We get another bizarre tale as Holmes is brought in on a case where a man has been drowned in ale. But he soon figures the ale is not from a local brewery. Can he find out where it happened, and more importantly why?
In the longest tale, Watson is approached by a soldier he had met in Afghanistan. He brings up a bizarre tale that an officer he knew in South Africa had died during the Boer War, but after visiting a medium, he went to the man’s widow, only to find the man alive. This story has elements of the supernatural, which is in keeping with Conan Doyle’s own interests.
Our final story is published for the first time and gives us a team-up with Dr. John Silence again. Here the trio are invited to help find a lost girl, the daughter of a duke’s gardener. She wandered into the nearby woods and disappeared. And apparently she is not the first. So the three plus the duke take a look into the woods. Will they find the girl or what happened to her?
Overall I enjoyed all of the stories. While the last two varied a little off-trail, I thought both were fine. I didn’t find the last too supernatural; it was a bit more weird science but plausible.
So what is next? Murray states that he is soon to do his 50th Holmes story, so we should see a fifth volume of Holmes stories in 2025. I look forward to it.
He is also working on some new stories with various pulp heroes, as well as another collection of Cthulhu fiction.
