Sherlock Holmes in America
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Book Summary Information
Editor: Martin H. GreenbergEditor: Jon L. Lellenberg
Editor: Daniel Stashower
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-11-01
ISBN: 1602399344
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Book Reviews of Sherlock Holmes in America
Book Review: Far more than elementary
Summary: 4 Stars
"Sherlock Holmes in America", far from being a radical reimagining of the life of the quintessential English detective, is a very carefully thought-out and faithful effort to portray some of Sherlock Holmes' "missing" adventures in the United States. The 14 short stories written for the collection are arranged in roughly chronological order, ranging from the 1870s through 1913, and take place all over the map of the continental U.S. Holmes (mostly but not always with Watson) investigates crimes on behalf of both private citizens and celebrities, often while being treated like a celebrity himself.
The leadoff story in the collection, "The Case of Colonel Warburton's Madness", is Watson's retelling of a mystery he encountered in San Franscisco long before being introduced to the Great Detective; Holmes, hearing the story, is naturally able to solve it without even leaving his chair. The next two stories, "Ghosts and the Machine" and "Excerpts From An Unpublished Memoir", are first-person accounts (neither by Watson) of an adolescent Holmes, set respectively in New England and Colorado. "Ghosts" is authored by Lloyd Rose, one of the few authors in this collection I'd read before; her previous work (the novel The City of the Dead (Doctor Who) and an episode in Homicide Life on the Street - The Complete Season 7) is highly recommended.
Both "The Flowers of Utah" and "The Case of the Coughing Dentist" are follow-ups to A Study in Scarlet, the first being a sequel (and a chance to retell the ending of the earlier story), and the second quickly spinning off into a tale of the American West. "The Minister's Missing Daughter" is Holmes in New York City; interestingly, so are both "Recalled to Life" and "The Seven Walnuts", but as both of those latter two stories are set in between "The Final Problem" and Holmes' subsequent resurrection by Doyle, there's a twist to each one.
While Manhattan gets a trilogy of stories, so does Chicago: "The Adventure of the White City" is set during the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and features a wealth of historical guests. "The Song at Twilight", the final story in the book and set during Holmes' retirement, features a 60-something Sherlock reluctantly undercover for the British government, at the behest of his brother Mycroft. This story is meant to explain some references in the Doyle story "His Last Bow", and also contains some interesting parellels to Ian Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service: James Bond Series #11. "The Adventure of the Missing Three Quarters" is a play on a similarly-named Doyle story; it's set during the early years of college football and as such contains some amusing potshots at the professional game of today.
As an interesting counterpoint to both "Three Quarters" and "Twilight", "The Case of the Rival Queens" features another real-life athlete (a retired 19th century baseball player), and a prefiguring of Holmes' later avocation as a beekeeper. Finally, "The Adventure of the Boston Dromio" is possibly the only story in the collection that left me disappointed; it starts off with Holmes attempting to clear Watson's old mentor of a murder charge but winds up being more a celebration of cats. The lengthy descriptions of frolicking felines is perhaps a bit too precious.
The collection ends with three brief non-fiction essays, the last one adapted from Conan Doyle himself. Overall there are a lot of neat historical surprises to be had -- I won't spoil the array of well-known figures who show up -- and in the end "Sherlock Holmes in America" is well researched, well structured, and clearly put together by people with great affection for the legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle.
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