The best of Sherlock Holmes pastiches

[Bob Cassady]

Re: Inquiry: The top 100 best Sherlock Holmes pastiche, film or otherwise? (Info: mostly Wikipedia)
These are some of my picks. What are yours?
Books: Author: Nichols Meyer, The Seven Percent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is the title of a 1974 novel by Nicholas Meyer. It is written as a pastiche of a Sherlock Holmes adventure, and was adapted for the cinema in 1976. The novel's full title is The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D.
Comment: I found a DVD of the film for just under $800. I would like to know more about this film.
Books: Author: Larry Millett
Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon (1996) ISBN 0-670-87039-0
Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders (1998) ISBN 0-670-87944-4 & ISBN 0-14-028089-8
Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery (1999) ISBN 0-670-88821-4 & ISBN 0-14-029645-X
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Alliance (2001)
The Disappearance of Sherlock Holmes (2002) ISBN 0-14-200340-9
The Mystery of the Jeweled Cross (short story, 2002) ISBN 1-879832-40-2 & ISBN 1-879832-38-0
Made for TV: Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes was a BBC television drama series originally broadcast in 2000. It was a fictional detective series inspired by the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based the character of Sherlock Holmes on his tutor at the University of Edinburgh Dr Joseph Bell, and that Bell did occasionally do forensic work for the Edinburgh police. Sequels
Murder Rooms - The Dark Beginnings Of Sherlock Holmes
Murder Rooms - The Kingdom Of Bones
Murder Rooms - The White Knight Stratagem
Murder Rooms - The Photographer's Chair
Murder Rooms - The Patient's Eyes

Books: The Canary Trainer by Nicholas Meyer
The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson is a 1993 Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Nicholas Meyer. Like The Seven Percent Solution and The West End Horror, The Canary Trainer was published as a "lost manuscript" of the late Dr. John H. Watson. Although in "The Adventure of Black Peter", an original Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes story from 1904, Watson mentions that his companion recently arrested "Wilson, the notorious canary-trainer, which removed a plague-spot from the East-End of London"; this Wilson is not related to the titular character of Meyer's novel; Meyer's "trainer" is Erik, the principal figure of Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera.

[SherlockianGirl]

I haven't read a lot of SH pastiches yet, but...

I'm about to finish "Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon" and I LOVE it!! Larry Millett has done a wonderful job keeping true to the spirit of Holmes and I'm looking forward to reading his other SH books, two of which are waiting on my bookshelf.

I ADORE Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer and the West End Horror was darn creepy. Yep, you've hit my favorites already. :)

[Bob Cassady]

Thank you for the nice response. Mr. Millett has a way of putting you into the scene. I felt as though I were taking part in the story. He is fast moving too, don’t you think? I hope one of the books waiting patiently for you is The Ice Palace Murders. Oh boy will that one get ya! It plays, too a minor degree, to Watson’s love of dogs. Then there is Rafferty, a kind of mix between The Master and Watson as an independent detective with an American flavor. I see Rafferty looking like, in the physical sense, H. Marion Crawford (Watson) in the Ronald Howard Sherlock Holmes series of the 50's. A fire plug with brains! Is that ok to say?
I think we will have to make room on our list for the West End Horror. It is another example of a pastiche showing respect for the author and character. Maybe we should look for the top 200 stories?
Thank you again,
Cactus Bob

[SherlockianGirl]

Haha! As a matter of fact, "Ice Palace Murders" is next off my bookshelf! Just finished "Demon" and WOW! Good stuff!

It's nice to know someone else has read these! And I concur, Millett's scene-setting is wonderful and the pace is fast without a lagging moment. I also liked in "Demon" how he stretched Holmes's character (and canonically at that). SH wasn't just the usual aloof or excited or enigmatic. Millett also made him frightened, violent (ha! Love those SH vs. bad guy moments), embarrassed, depressed, and caring. Can't think of an emotion he didn't go through...

Yes, West End Horror was quite good and should definitely be put on the list. Didn't expect the ending to that book :)

Thank YOU,
SG

[Bob Cassady]

The guy is so flexible isn't he? I read an argument last week that stated that The Master wouldn't survive today's criminals because DNA is infallible. About six months ago I came across a story about a burgler that had been arrested during the commission of a b&e. They found a belt around his waist that was strapped to his chest filled with test tubes that carried many different articles. For a shorter sentence he explained that they were samples of the friends he hung with and that the samples carried their DNA. Cigarette butts, tooth picks, hair from hair brushes. You get the picture! If there were a close call on a job he would leave a little DNA for the law. So much for absolute proof. I believe that SH would still be on top and he would take us all with him. I am so thankful that Watson was there to set the standard.
I like your choice of books. Keep adding to the list.
Cactus Bob

[Mack Lundy]

Do Steve Hockensmith's books - Holmes on the Range, On the Wrong Track, The Black Dove - count as pastiches? I've only read Holmes on the Range so far and found it quite enjoyable.

[Bob Cassady]

Well you have me stuck on this one. There are so many good pastiches on the Master. It looks as though I have some new reading to do. Thank you!
Cactus Bob

[Will Thomas]

Steve's a friend of mine, and his books are a hoot!

[Bob Cassady]

Hey Mack,
A search on the net found many references to Mr. Hockensmith's work. All good! He is a newer writer that appears to be on the right track. School and Holmes dot com has had him listed as an author writing pastiches of Sherlock Holmes which, in my mind, is a good thing. A trip to my local Barnes and Noble found one copy. The book was priced at $22.95 and was on a sale shelf. After tax I paid less than $6 for it. It may be one of my better buys for the year. I opened it when I got home to have a quick look and ran into a line that I will remember. Chapter 1, p6 has a stand alone line: "Some folks get religion. Gustav got Sherlock Holmes." The statement feels like it may be equating addictions. I think it is. Many of us have fallen prey to a lifetime of inspection of the Canon and its offspring. There are thousands of pastiches. This one looks good to me. I am glad I bought it, thank you.
Cactus Bob

[SherlockianGirl]

*AUGH*! Look what you guys have done! I've gone and ordered this book! XD Haha, I can't wait to read it!

[Bob Cassady]

Now I know that it is hard to believe that a few of us Sherlockians are somewhat analytical. Some may question Watson’s motives as a doctor for instance when he allows someone like Holmes to get him into so much trouble. He seems to need to escape Holmes from time to time to such an extent that he is willing to marry and move out and he still gets pulled back into Sherlock’s shenanigans. He is we! We (you and me) are he! Oh boy! I know that we all feel it to some extent. Some of us more than others maybe. Still there is a need to study our motives for being like the great Doctor and joining others in sharing so much confusion and in turn we hopefully become more enlightened and or smarter. We are smarter? Right? A little help here please. So how have we become so enlightened by these stories? Why is it that no matter how many times I read the complete Canon (I think I am up to 14 times now) I find another head scratching moment asking myself “how did I miss that.” The story never looks the same after each reading to me. There is much more to this world of Holmes and Watson than the Canon. So I read. Things like: Chris Redmond’s A Sherlock Holmes Handbook, SBN 0-88924-246-1. This book is 232 pages plus and can tell you just about everything you need to know about our dear Sherlock. Well may be. Maybe not! Chris’s book is like a Pandora’s Box. You will not be able to help yourself. You will then read every word of this guys website. Which will cause you more brain twist. It just ain’t that easy. Something tells you that if you continue with this it will mean a trip to the Betty Ford Center for you. So now you are thinking Cactus Bob is a nut, right? Well be warned. There are lots of me. Very soon you will be watching a movie or TV and you will be getting more and more inside jokes and you will recognize lines in programs that have been expropriated from our Sherlockian world. Oh the plagiarists out there. If you have come this far in this letter you are in trouble. Watch out for that Redmond guy. Did you know his Father was one of them too? Next you will want to read something like the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine which will take some effort to acquire or locate an old, used set of Baring-Gould Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Then that’s not good enough for you so you sell your car so you can order that New Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Leslie Klinger. Oh yes, you do this because his approach to the Canon is very different than the Baring-Gould information. Time line vs print date, you know. Oh and then you could send to England for the 10 book series (http://www.wessexpress.com/). That should be enough to sustain you, I mean me. Oh! You would never let this happen to you. You are strong and can walk away. Like, like Scott Monty did. So you listen to him and he takes you to Twitter or Face Book or even worse, SHSN. Here you are exposed to people that may know more than you. You try to keep up but you are out of breathe just thinking about it. Did you know that major colleges around the country are adding Sherlock Holmes to their classes? You are keeping up with college level, English lit students in your spare time. You are no longer left out of the conversation and at times you lead them. You have spent thousands of dollars on books and memorabilia and travel to the nearest campus to see Fellini movies. The day is brighter and you have a broader panorama of new friends. You can buy your car back. You have solved the case of the missing copier paper worth over $50 at work and you get a new title. Not more money just a new title. Life is better. You read more. You have a bigger vocabulary and dog- gone- it you like you. So trust me! Have you read this over a second time yet. Are you waiting for the slap in the face telling you to wake up? Get going here. Life is so short and what is 660,000 words of the Canon anyway. You can do it! Then you will be just like me. An expert at the run-on-sentence. Always looking for hair on someone’s shoulder or another book about my Master.
Cactus Bob

[ClaudeParish]

I seem to remember a lurid story by Michael Dibdin called "The Last Sherlock Holmes Story", involving both Moriarty and Jack the Ripper.
I won't ruin it for you, but it was interesting, if a little more than gory.

[Colonel Moran]

I just finished reading Dibdin's pastiche. I enjoyed it. I found it to be an easy read, and it kept my interest from start to finish. I haven't read a lot of pastiches, but this is one of the best that I have read.