Encounters of Sherlock Holmes: Brand-New Tales of the Great Detective
An anthology by Mark Hodder, Paul Margs, James Lovegrove, Eric Brown, and More
A 352-pages collection of fiction, published by Titan Books

 

This past fall I committed myself to the arduous task of reading the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes, as well as eagerly anticipating the new season of BBC’s “Sherlock” television series, and upon finishing I felt a gaping hole in my mystery-loving heart. Needless to say, I was thrilled to discover last Friday that I would be reviewing Titan’s new release of The Encounters of Sherlock Holmes, an anthology of new stories centered around the Great Detective, penned by a handful of award-winning authors and set to release this week.

I have only chosen the four short stories that stuck out to me the most, as the others left close to no sort of memorable effect upon my mind at all. Writing entirely new stories of an already legendary fictional figure must be no easy task to undertake so before I proceed, let me applaud these brave souls for casting their lot out into the world to be judged as they may. (Clapping commences). That’s enough of that; on to the review!

The first short story in this anthology is written by English steampunk scribe, Mark Hodder (A Red Sun Also Rises), and titled “The Loss Of Chapter Twenty-One.” With a title so close to one you might find in the original cannon, I was excited to proceed onwards and see what Hodder had in store, however, my excitement was shot down within the first two pages like a duck on the first day of hunting season. In this story, Sherlock and Watson solve the case of a missing twenty-first chapter to a very important piece of work by the adventurer Sir Richard Francis Burton (who is notably also a central character in Hodder’s “Burton & Swinburn”). While I do understand that any author would want to put his own stamp upon any work they write, the relationship between the famous duo was my biggest problem with this. Sherlock is portrayed as a completely unfeeling robot and his trusty sidekick, Watson, is reduced to little more than a whiny bitch, fruitlessly hoping for a small scrap of thanks from his exalted companion. It left me wondering how the author so vastly misinterpreted the relationship between the two usually amicable companions, or if he ever even read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories at all.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Original Author & Creator of Sherlock Holmes

Mags Halliday (Faction Paradox) penned the second story in the compilation. The short story titled “Sherlock Holmes and the Indelicate Widow”, while somewhat irrelevantly named, followed a tone so close to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s that at one or two points I had to be brought back to reality to remember that it was, in fact, not him. It follows Holmes and Watson on a curious adventure in which they solve a mystery placed aboard a funeral train (which apparently are a real thing) and to stop criminals from escaping the long hands of the law! It was a bit slow in pacing and held next to no riveting action sequences, yet I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nick Kyme’s story “The Modern Day Prometheus” was both more eloquent and much more dark than I had expected, and, while it did not fit too closely to an original Sherlock Holmes tale, it was by far my favorite in the book. He managed to combine such vivid detail in a science-fiction setting along with the gore and action that could only come from a veteran ­Warhammer 40,000 writer, I was hooked within the first paragraph. Not only does the story open upon the two companions leaning over the viscera-covered body of a decapitated man, but it also involves two of the most beloved (or hated, your pick) sci-fi/horror characters in classical literature: Dr. Henry Jekyl/Hyde and the son/creation of Dr. Victor Frankenstein. When an author can manage to end a story with a mutated human exploding and covering a tannery in bloody slime while not sacrificing flowing, eloquent imagery, I will do my very best to hunt down any works he has published. This guy deserves some kind of award for literary excellence, if not a statue.

Finally, we come to the last story that I’ve chosen to comment on which sums up my over all so-so impression of this anthology: “The Property Of A Thief” by Mark Wright (Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles). While I didn’t dislike this story I didn’t particularly like it, either. It followed Dr. John Watson on a small holiday at a close friend’s house whose wife, Elizabeth, is hosting a dinner party/ weekend of cricket. All of the guests know him as the companion of the famous detective and he’s quite tired of the unwanted questions. Eventually, a mystery arises when Elizabeth’s diamond tiara (go figure) is suddenly missing in the middle of the night! Obviously Sherlock is called to rush over and help solve the crime because it has such “sentimental value” to the lady. In all honesty, it wasn’t terribly written in the least. It just wasn’t exciting or particularly interesting enough to keep my attention for long. I expected more from Wright, having written several tales of Doctor Who, but there were no scenes of anyone running down a long hallway and the vocabulary didn’t quite fit with the time period. Let me say this, though: Mark, I will happily read any of your writings for D.W., because I could easily see your style fitting excellently with any stories of that kind.

I have very mixed feeling about this book, as a whole. I typically love the majority of novels released by Titan, but somehow they missed the mark so much that one might look two yards over for the misdirected flaming lawn dart. Some stories did Doyle proud and could have fit seamlessly in between the adventures of Holmes and Watson both in tone and subject matter, while others left me regretting I took the time to read them at all. If you come upon this book at your local library, by all means give it a read, but if you never come across it, it’s probably of no loss to yourself. With all this said, I give the title a humble 6 out of 10.