Continuing to catch up on my reading of the excellent Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective series from Airship 27, this time I go over volumes 12 to 14 and an author-specific collection.
Each of these volumes is well designed, with good to great cover artwork by different artists, interior art by Rob Davis, and one-to-three-page essays by the authors on their stories and background on them. 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 12
We get five stories from four authors in this volume. I.A. Watson gives us two, shorter than he often does. The first one has Sherlock Holmes dealing with an interesting con artist. Holmes is confronted by a police inspector as it appears he, or someone appearing as him, has stolen a valuable gem. But Holmes was busy dealing with another case while in disguise. So can he prove his innocence and, better, stop the con man? This one was a fun one, I thought. Will the con man return? Watson’s second one has a young bride murdered the night before her wedding — by hanging. Her father is a former hangman who happened to have hung many criminals, including former associates of Moriarty. Can Holmes track down the fiend who did this?
Barbara Doran‘s story has Holmes and Watson in Germany, where they meeting up with Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, better known as “The Thinking Machine.” Together, they help deal with sabotage at an exhibition, as someone is trying to kill many there. Can they figure things out before any more die?
Fred Adams Jr. is back with another tale, this one dealing with the murder of one of a pair of twin brothers, the survivor being Watson’s haberdasher. It centers around an unusual pepperbox pistol as the question of how the brother was killed. Was he killed by a burglar? But things aren’t adding up.
And finally, Brad Mengel has a strange tale tied to Limehouse set early when Watson was living with Holmes. While covering for another doctor, Watson is summoned to help an elderly Chinaman who he discovers has had some of the skin of his arm removed. Before Holmes and Watson can look into it further, the man is killed in a fire along with the young boy who brought Watson to him. Can they discover the secret behind it all and bring their killer (or killers) to justice?
Volume 13
This time we get five stories from four authors. One from I.A. Watson, two from S. Subramanian, and one each from Fred Adams Jr. and Dexter Fabi.
I.A. Watson’s story centers around the aftermath when a young spinster dies in a fire. She has only a half-sister who lives in New Zealand. But instead, three women show up claiming to be the sister. Which is the correct one? And why is this case so much more than just finding the correct heir?
As noted, we get two stories from Subramanian. The first gives us the tale of the “red leeches,” which has Holmes needing to solve it from home with a sprained ankle. The second gives us a sequel story to “The Empty House,” which is a revenge story as well. It’s kind of appropriate, considering another story in this collection. It’s narrated by a minor character from the original stories, Billy the page-boy. Readers hopefully pick up who he grows up to be from the afterword.
Adams’ tale starts out with a church sexton coming to Holmes with a strange tale of graverobbing, yet somehow the body is still there. But Holmes checks and finds that the body was swapped. Looking into it, they work on what happened to the original body as well as who was put there. Even Mycroft gets involved when a major villain for Holmes appears to be behind it all.
And finally, first-time contributor Dexter Fabi gives us a bizarre story. A woman comes to Holmes with a strange case: Someone is trying to strangle her in the night. She doesn’t think it’s her husband but isn’t sure. As Holmes looks into things, he starts receiving severed heads. When it’s all said and done, they find a strange connection to their landlady, Mrs. Hudson.
Volume 14
This volume has another four stories, with one from I.A. Watson, two by David Friend, and one by Ray Lovato.
First up is I.A. Watson’s story, which takes up about half the book. We get a deep mystery centered around the disappearance of Wiggins, the former leader of Holmes’ “irregulars,” who has taken a job at Mycroft’s Diogenes Club and is somehow working for him. Thus, there may be a political element with this case, which makes it difficult to not only get to the bottom of the mystery but also to know who can be trusted, even among the police and other official forces.
From Friend, we first get a murder mystery when a young woman Holmes helped 10 years ago is accused of murdering two men. She claims to have seen the ghost of another man, but others feel this proves she is crazy and killed the two due to guilt regarding her father. Can Holmes get to the bottom of things and reveal the true cause? And was there a ghost? Friend’s second is a shorter story with Holmes facing a locked-room mystery. Hopefully, he can figure it all out.
And finally, from Lovato, we get the murders of two disadvantaged men whom Holmes had befriended and were sources of information on the London underworld. They are found brutally slain on the banks of the Thames. Holmes vows to get to the bottom of things and expose the crime and what led to their deaths.
The Incunabulum of Sherlock Holmes
This is a collection of six of I.A. Watson’s Sherlock Holmes tales, but ones that appeared in other anthologies. I didn’t know this at first, assuming incorrectly that they just collected his stories from earlier collections, so I didn’t even look at it. So, if you’ve only read his works here in this series, you will get six new (for many readers) tales of Holmes and Watson. Two are new to this collection. For me, all were new.
Two stories are set early in the partnership between Holmes and Watson. In the first, Watson finds himself alone as Holmes has disappeared, maybe on his own case. But both inspectors Lestrade and Gregson call, looking for Holmes’ help on their cases. Watson tries to assist as best he can.
One case involves a former British officer from India who died under mysterious circumstances. There seems more to it than it seems, but Watson, with some assistance in the background from Holmes, is able to bring things to a resolution as he shows the two cases are connected. In the other case, another detective dies under strange circumstances, and Holmes not only works to solve his murder but his last case.
Next is a story created for an anthology where Holmes may have encounters with the supernatural. Here he is called into a case in the moors of Yorkshire where a landowner has been killed. By whom and why is not clear. There seems to be a supernatural element as the victim claimed to have seen ghostly giants fighting, maybe caused by the landowner digging up a barrow and angering the spirits of old. But is the mystery supernatural or not? I felt in many ways this was similar to The Hound of the Baskervilles. Some may find the local dialect used by several characters a slight chore to read.
Another story has the return of the main character from I.A. Watson’s story in volume 13, this time teaming up with Dr. Watson during the time Holmes was thought dead. How can you have a Sherlock Holmes story when he doesn’t actually appear?
A lady collects items related to Sherlock Holmes and meets with Watson to go over her new additions. Some are tied to a sad story of a woman who was tricked by a man and later committed suicide. They find that the man was brutally killed in France at the same time Holmes was there. After a strange encounter, the two team up to try to figure out if Holmes did what they fear.
And then we have a story centered around the flop houses in London. At one, three men have all died in the same bed. What might be the cause, and can Holmes get to the bottom of things before more die?
And the final story has a team-up with a different doctor: Dr. John Dee from the 1500s. How does that work? Saying more may give it away. I’ll leave it to other readers to decide if this works or not. Here, they work to uncover a plot against the Queen.
So my next review should come at some point, hopefully bringing me more up-to-date with this series, which recently hit 20 volumes. But reading any of these will give you some great Holmes stories.
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